New members and visitors are always welcome to attend these
events.
Please submit your meeting notices to John W. Docktor
<phillymaps(at)gmail(dot)com>
To learn more about
non-current maps see Map
History / History of Cartography.
Exhibition announcements
can be found at Cartography
- Calendar of Exhibitions.
Click here
for archive of past events.
June 1, 2023 - Miami (Online) University of Miami Libraries Special Collections will be hosting, using Zoom software, Conversations On Cartography. All presentations will begin at 1 pm (EDT) and are free and open to the public. Please contact the University of Miami Libraries at <library.events(at)miami.edu> for more information. Timothy Norris (Data Scientist, University Libraries) in conversation with Arthur Dunkelman Curator, Jay I. Kislak Collection, University Libraries, will speak about Indigenous Cartography and Cartography of the Indigenous. Click here for more info and link to attend.
June 1, 2023 - Seville The General Archives of the Indies is hosting a lecture by the Belgian Professor Dr. Stefaan Missinne (Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society), in the Assembly Hall of the headquarters, Avda. de la Constitución s/n, Lonja building, and c/ Santo Tomás nº 5, the building of the former Cilla del Cabildo in Seville. The title of the lecture which will be in Spanish is: El globo terráqueo de Leonardo da Vinci de 1504. The opening of the event and official greeting will be by Professor Dr. María Ester Cruces Blanco, Director of the General Archive of the Indies. The speaker will be formally introduced by the Austrian Consul in Seville Dr. Rufino Garcia-Otero Reina on behalf of the Austrian Embassy in Spain. The closing ceremony will be by Guillermo Morán Dauchez, Deputy Director General of the General Archive of the Indies. The meeting is at 7:00 PM. Please register <ag1(at)cultura.gob.es>.
June 6, 2023 - London The International Map Collectors' Society annual general meeting takes place at 10.30am in the Library of the Royal Geographical Society (on the first floor). It concludes prior to the opening of the London Map Fair downstairs. All members are welcome.
June 6 and 13, 2023 - London
(Online) The International Map
Collectors' Society annual Malcolm Young lecture will be in a
slightly different format. There will be two online lectures, rather
than a single physical one during Map Fair weekend. Dennis Reinharz,
Emeritus Profession of History at the University of Texas in
Arlington, will present two lectures. The highly topical subject is
that of Russia. In keeping with the sheer size of the country –
and the topic – the material extends over two separate but
related talks. The first is on June 6th at 18.00 UK time. It is
entitled Misconceptions: Russia and the West – past
centuries. Registration
free.
The second talk will focus on more recent and current
issues and modern aspects of the mapping of Russia. It will be on
June 13th at 18.00 UK time. Registration
free. You are welcome to register for one event and not the
other. However, they do make up a single whole in interpretive terms.
June 8, 2023 - Miami (Online) University of Miami Libraries Special Collections will be hosting, using Zoom software, Conversations On Cartography. All presentations will begin at 1 pm (EDT) and are free and open to the public. Please contact the University of Miami Libraries at <library.events(at)miami.edu> for more information. Kate Hunter, Senior Specialist, Daniel Crouch Rare Books in conversation with Arthur Dunkelman, Curator, Jay I. Kislak Collection, will speak about Unexpected Adventures Told in Three Maps: Western Australia, the Indian Ocean, and Captain James Cook's First Voyage. Click here for more info and link to attend.
June 9, 2023 - Kyoto (Hybrid) Mark Ravina (University of Texas at Austin) will discuss Rethinking Historical Maps for the 21st Century: A Quantitative Perspective on Japan’s kuniezu from 15:00 - 17:00 (JST). Meeting will be on Zoom and in Seminar Room 1, International Research Center for Japanese Studies. Over the past 30 years, historians have reconceptualized the history of political space. We now recognize that discrete, exacting borders are largely a creation of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, not a timeless or natural phenomenon. Our historical maps, however, do not reflect this new understanding, and draw all borders as clear, exact lines. In Japan’s kuniezu, for example, long stretches of provincial borders are described as undetermined. How can we accurately map vague borders? Relying on quantitative methods, this presentation engages with that question as both a conceptual and a practical problem for digital mapping. Registration required for the Zoom link.
June 10-11, 2023 - London The London Map Fair is the largest Antique Map Fair in Europe. It will be held at the Royal Geographical Society, 1 Kensington Gore: Saturday 12.00 pm to 7.00 pm and Sunday 10.00 am to 6.00 pm. There will be a lecture on Saturday at 2:30 pm.: 'You are not here’ Adam Dant’s diverting maps. In this richly illustrated talk fine artist and cartographer Adam Dant describes the conception, research and construction that underpin his printed pictorial maps. Additionally there will be talks by Ashley Baynton-Williams throughout the weekend on map collecting for beginners.
June 11-16, 3023 – Charlottesville Matthew Edney will be teaching H-65 Material Foundations of Map History, 1450–1900' at the Rare Book School. The course will meet on the University of Virginia campus. Indeed, while the main UVa library (with RBS quarters) continues its multi-year renovations, RBS meets in Thomas Jefferson's famed rotunda and lawn.
June 13, 2023 - Washington (Online) Please join Geography and Map Division staff for a virtual orientation to our collections and resources from 3:00-4:00 pm (Eastern). Reference librarians Julie Stoner and Cynthia Smith will present an introduction to the Geography and Map collections at the Library of Congress. This orientation session, aimed at the general public, will highlight a wide range of cartographic formats and subject matter. The focus of the session will be on maps and online resources available to all patrons any time or place in the world. Topics covered will also include search tips and tricks, research and collection guides, ways to engage with the collections online, and how to prepare for a future trip to the reading room. After the presentation, staff look forward to answering additional questions from attendees. Register for this Zoom session.
June 14, 2023 - USA (Online) The California, Chicago, New York, Philip Lee Phillips, Rocky Mountain, Texas, and Washington Map Societies are offering a virtual lecture via Zoom . Anyone interested in participating in the meeting must RSVP to John Docktor at <washmap(at)gmail.com> in order to receive the meeting ID and passcode. Meeting will start at 7:00 PM Eastern Time, 6:00 PM Central Time, 5:00 PM Mountain Time, and 4:00 PM Pacific Time. Rodney Kite-Powell (Director, Touchton Map Center, Tampa Bay History Center) will present Key West and the Florida Keys: Mapping the History of the Conch Republic. This presentation will provide an overview of the current map exhibition at the Tampa Bay History Center on display from April 15 to October 15. It focuses on Key West and the Florida Keys, which have played an outsized role in Florida’s history.
June 15, 2023 - Lake Forest The Chicago Map Society will visit the MacLean Collection. Dr. Molly Briggs, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, will speak about Immersion in Print: Mapping Place-Worlds in Azimuthal Projection. Lecture is at 6:00 pm Central (Social hour begins @ 5:00). Space is limited, so be sure and reserve yours soon using the Eventbrite Link.
June 17, 2023 - San Francisco (Hybrid) Join Bay Area Map (BAM) Group of California Map Society at 10am for an in-person gathering of friends at the home of Tom Paper and Eleanor Bigelow. You can share a map or just hang out and listen to our in-person speakers, as well Patrick McGranahan, who will Zoom in to talk about the Madaba map. If you plan to share, please email Tom <tom(at)websterpacific.com>. To register for attending in-person, click here. You can also Zoom in here at10:30am (no registration necessary. Contact <tom(at)websterpacific.com> for the Zoom link.
June 20-21, 2023 - London Despite the attentions of cultural historians since the 1980s, maps still tend to escape close and critical study as fundamentally visual and material forms of communication, with histories of cartography remaining predominantly disconnected from these dimensions of the subject matter. This two-day symposium, The Art and Architecture of Mapping: Visual and Material Approaches to Cartographic Objects at The Courtauld Institute of Art, Vernon Square; addresses this interdisciplinary challenge from a diverse range of perspectives that foreground such questions as: how do maps operate as representations, and how do culturally situated understandings of space shape how they are created, seen and read? How does the study of maps within specific historical or cultural contexts connect to broader issues in visual/material history? In what ways are coloniality and/or indigeneity made visible/material in maps? How can art-historical approaches inform other disciplinary analyses and uses of maps? Invited speakers will offer new perspectives through studies of cartographic objects from around the world, from early modern India, Iran, and China to the Atlantic world and contemporary South Africa.
June 24, 2023 - Washington Join the George Washington University Museum and The Textile Museum, 701 21st St. NW, from 11 a.m.-1 p.m. for a tour of the exhibition The New Naval and Military Map of the United States and special access to the museum’s collection of maps of Washington, D.C., and the surrounding area. These primary documents used for urban planning, exploration and navigation, and more will be on display in the Albert H. Small Center for National Capital Area Studies. This program will take place in person at the museum. To join the program, meet us in the Woodhull House galleries on level two for a guided tour of the exhibition The New Naval and Military Map of the United States, followed by a visit to the Albert H. Small Center for National Capital Area Studies. Space is limited, so please register in advance.
June 30, 2023 – Berlin (Online) Topographic visual media have been and continue to be produced and used in a wide variety of fields, such as science, art, the military, administration, jurisdiction and tourism. Accordingly, the field of investigation includes maps and sea charts, topographic sketches, diagrams and plans, the mapping of planets and seas, and virtual spaces in computer graphics as well as landscape paintings, drawings and prints. There are many overlaps between these visual media in terms of techniques and types of spatial representation. Thus, we aim to understand and examine their functions and applications with regard to these interconnections. The Network Topographic Visual Media aims to provide a public platform for academic debate and exchange between research projects and approaches from different disciplines, e.g. image, media and cultural studies, history of art or history of cartography. In our workshops, current research projects on topographic visual media are presented and discussed. Petra Svatek (Akademie der Wissenschaften, Vienna) will speak about Cartography and Politics at the Department of Geography of Vienna University 1900-1945. The workshop will take place online via zoom starting at 14:00 CET. If you wish to register please subscribe to our newsletter, or contact us at <ntb(at)kunstgeschichte.org> .
June 30, 2023 - Williamsburg Members of the Williamsburg Map Circle are invited to attend Susan Schulten’s lecture which will take place at 4:30pm in the Hennage Auditorium in the Art Museums of Colonial Williamsburg. Susan will speak about Emma Willard who was among the nineteenth century’s most influential educators. She broke new ground in female education, shaped the advent of public schooling across the country, and was widely known for her innovative textbooks and atlases. Those of you who are not members of the Museum should tell the people at the Entrance that you are members of the Williamsburg Map Circle. so that you won’t have to pay admission. Please let Ellen Spore <ellen.spore(at)gmail.com> know if you would like to attend so that your name is on the list of members. You may bring a guest or guests.
July 1, 2023 - Brussels The Brussels Map Circle will meet at 15.00 in the Map Room of KBR (Royal Library of Belgium), Bd de l'Empereur 4. Chet Van Duzer (University of Rochester, USA)) will discuss Frames that Speak: An Introduction to Cartographic Cartouches. He will speak about the early history and development of cartouches, examine some of their sources, and explain their symbolism of several remarkable cartouches in detail. Please register: Marie-Anne Dage, Brussels Map Circle Secretary, <marie.anne.dage(at)gmail.com>.
July 10-14, 2023 – Berlin The International Society for the History of the Map will hold its “VII Symposium” at the Max Planck Institute for the History of Science. The symposium theme, Intersections in Map History, invites consideration of the impact of seemingly contradictory perspectives such as insider and outsider knowledge expertise, and art and science, on map making and use. The first two days will be devoted to a Workshop for early career professionals (scholars, curators, archivists, and librarians) working in the history of cartography, and the symposium will follow. The General Meeting will take place on Wednesday 12th July from 13:30-14:30 CEST in hybrid format. ISHMap Society members may participate online via Zoom. The Symposium Keynote, on Wednesday 12th July 2023 from 18:30-19:30 CEST will also be hybrid and open to members via Zoom (pre-registration not required). Richard A. Pegg and Elke Papelitzky will discuss Mapping Heaven and Earth: The Blue Maps of China. Contact ISHMap Secretary <ishmap.secretary(at)gmail.com> for Zoom links. Questions may be directed to co-hosts Diana Lange <diana.lange(at)uni-hamburg.de> or Vera Dorofeeva-Lichtmann <vera.dorofeeva-lichtmann(at)ehess.fr>.
August 13-18, 2023 – Cape Town The 31st International Cartographic Conference and 19th General Assembly of the International Cartographic Association will have the theme Smart Cartography for Sustainable Development. The venue is the world-class Cape Town International Convention Centre.
August 19, 2023 – Stanford (Hybrid) The California Map Society Spring Conference will be held at the David Rumsey Map Center, Green Library, 557 Escondido Mall, from 10:30 AM to 4:30 PM. Click for program and registration for attending either in-person or by Zoom.
August 22-24, 2023 – Helsinki The International Map Collectors' Society 40th annual symposium is organized by Cartographic Society of Finland and Chartarum Amici. Sponsored by National Land Survey of Finland, City of Helsinki and John Nurminen Foundation. There will be an optional pre-conference tour of Helsinki on August 21, and an optional post-conference tour August 25-27. For more information contact Antti Jakobsson <antti.jakobsson(at)maanmittauslaitos.fi>.
August 29-31, 2023 - London The three-day Royal Geographical Society-IBG Annual International Conference attracts over 2000 geographers from around the world. This year, the conference will will be held in the The Royal Geographical Society (with IBG), 1 Kensington Gore.
September 12, 2023 - USA (Online) The California, Chicago, New York, Philip Lee Phillips, Rocky Mountain, Texas, and Washington Map Societies are offering a virtual lecture via Zoom . Anyone interested in participating in the meeting must RSVP to John Docktor at washmap(at)gmail.com in order to receive the meeting ID and passcode. Meeting will start at 7:00 PM Eastern Time, 6:00 PM Central Time, 5:00 PM Mountain Time, and 4:00 PM Pacific Time. Richard Francaviglia (Professor Emeritus, University of Texas at Arlington; currently Associated Scholar, Willamette University, Salem, Oregon) will discuss The Role of Maps in Films about Exploration and Discovery: Some Latin American Examples. Filmmakers have long used maps on screen to chart the progress of characters going from one place to another -- for example, explorers taking a ship from the Old World to the New. However, cinematically speaking, maps serve many other purposes as well. In this presentation, Francaviglia will discuss the varied ways that films depicting the process of exploration and discovery in South America employ maps.
September 20, 2023 - Cambridge The Map Curators’ Group of the British Cartographic Society will hold its Annual Workshop in person at the British Antarctic Survey. The Map Curators’ Group is for anyone interested in using and sharing maps, bound together by a shared interest in curating, maintaining, and sharing our map collections. Our annual workshops offer the opportunity to share expertise and learn from each other. This workshop is part of the British Cartographic Society’s 60th anniversary conference. The MCG workshop theme will be: Exploring Maps. Additional information from Williams, Paula <P.Williams(at)NLS.UK>.
September 20, 2023 - Rochester, Massachusetts Charlie Rowley will present a program Mapping Rochester at the monthly meeting of the Rochester Historical Society. Meeting is at 7:00 PM at the East Rochester Church at 355 County Road.
September 21-24, 2023 – Minneapolis The “Annual Conference 2023” of the Society for the History of Discoveries is titled Worlds of Exploration. The conference will be hosted by the James Ford Bell Library at the University of Minnesota. There will be a Thursday evening reception and a post-conference excursion in Minneapolis.
September 26, 2026 – Oxford The Bodleian Library, University of Oxford, will have an Oxford Seminars in Cartography Conference about Artful maps: exploring the visual culture of cartography. Cartography has long been recognised as art and science. This conference explores how art affects cartography’s process, products, and personnel. Ranging over all types of map, all areas of the world, and all time periods, the conference considers the relationship between art and cartography. Details of how to register will be available nearer the time. Additional information from <elizabeth.baigent(at)geog.ox.ac.uk> or <nick.millea(at)bodleian.ox.ac.uk>.
September 27-30, 2023 - Berlin The International Coronelli Society will have its XV International Symposium About Globes in the Humboldt Hall of the Staatsbibliothek, Unter den Linden 8. The production of globes only began in Berlin in the late 18th century, but developed into an internationally very successful production in the 19th century. Researchers of globe studies and all interested parties are invited to this symposium. The topics of the symposium are all aspects of globe studies - in particular the history of globes and their position in the socio-economic context, but also contributions to globe-related instruments such as armillary spheres, planetariums, telluriums and lunariums. Conference languages are German and English (no translation).
October 18-20, 2023 – Stanford The David Rumsey Map Center, along with sponsor Barry Lawrence Ruderman Antique Maps, Inc., is excited to announce dates for the Fourth Biennial Barry Lawrence Ruderman Maps Conference on Cartography to be held on Data Visualization. Additional details to be announced.
November 25, 2023 – Paris The History Commission of the French Cartography Committee is organizing a study day at Institut national d'histoire de l'art, 2 Rue Vivienne, entitled Art(s) and mapping(s). Beyond the classic studies on the specific place of cartography in the history of scientific knowledge, and the repeated analyzes of the involvement of cartography (and cartographers) in various political operations, it is necessary to consider the relations of cartography with the arts and artists as well as its forms of involvement in the visual cultures of modern and contemporary societies. Research on this subject is already numerous, and fruitful, and has made it possible to establish decisively the multiple levels and forms of interaction between the worlds of cartography and the worlds of art.
June 15-16, 2024 - London The London Map Fair is the largest Antique Map Fair in Europe. It will be held at the Royal Geographical Society, 1 Kensington Gore: Saturday 12.00 pm to 7.00 pm and Sunday 10.00 am to 6.00 pm.
July 1-5, 2024 - Lyon, France Imago Mundi and the University of Lyon will be glad to welcome you back to France during the 30th International Conference on the History of Cartography, postponed from 2023. The idea of organizing the conference in Lyon with the theme Confluences - Interdisciplinarity and New Challenges in the History of Cartography is inspired by the very location of the city, as a confluence between North and South, between Saône and Rhône rivers, the Rhône Valley and the Alps. The official language of the conference will be English, and all presentations must be in that language. There will be no simultaneous translation. There will be a pre-conference visit to Paris and Bibliothèque Nationale de France on June 29th, and a post-conference tour on July 6th. Additional information from <ichc2024(at)univ-lyon3.fr>.
September 4-7, 2024 – Basel The 21. Kartographiehistorisches Colloquium will be held. Additional details to be announced.
October 16-19, 2024 - Valletta, Malta The 41st International Map Collectors' Society annual symposium, Imago Melitae 2024, will feature six lectures by well-known figures in the cartographic world will be given along with visits to the National Library, MUZA and Lascaris War Rooms in Valletta, the Maritime Museum and the Inquisitors Palace in Vittoriosa, and the National and Ecclesiastical Archives in Rabat and Mdina. Further details to be announced.
September 11-14, 2025 - Portland, Maine The 42nd International Map Collectors' Society annual symposium will be at the Osher Map Library and Smith Center for Cartographic Education, 314 Forest Ave. We will also be working with the University of Southern Maine facilities. The conference title is New Perspectives on Mapping New England and Maritime Canada. The program opens with an evening reception and possible keynote lecture on Thursday. Friday and Saturday will be lectures during the day and dinner on your own. Sunday, the final day, will be a behind the scenes tour and "Treasures of the Collection" in the morning. Then lunch and a walking tour of Portland in the afternoon ending around 3:00 PM. Closing banquet that night. There will be a post-symposium three-day tour of Maine Monday through Wednesday, September 15-17th. Additional details to be announced. Contact Libby Bischof <elizabeth.bischof(at)maine.edu> for more information.