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>
Exhibition announcements can
be found at Cartography
- Calendar of Exhibitions.
Click here
for archive of past events.
April 8-10, 2026 - La Plata, Buenos Aires The XI Simposio Iberoamericano de Historia de la Cartografía will take place in Sergio Karakachoff Graduate Center – National University of La Plata, located at 7th Street, No. 776. Theme is "Mapear y proyectar. Territorios dibujados, diseñados y representados." Registration is free, and the official languages will be Spanish and Portuguese. Contact email: <xisiahc(at)gmail.com>.
April 9, 2026 - Stanford Join Dr. Ben Gitai at the David Rumsey Map Center, 557 Escondido Mall, for a talk on Chronomapping Transitional Landscapes: Time, Space, and Human Experience Along the Sunset Dune and the Former Great Highway in San Francisco – an exploration of how time, space, and human experience converge along San Francisco's Sunset Dunes and the former Great Highway corridor. Lecture is 2:30pm to 4:30pm PT and you must register.
April 10-11, 2026 Galveston, Texas The Texas Map Society's Spring Meeting, Mapping the Gulf of Mexico, is dedicated to the spatial history, science, and visualization of the Gulf of Mexico. The meeting will be held in Rosenberg Library, 2310 Sealy Ave. We seek to bring together map collectors, historians of cartography, marine scientists, geographers, archivists, digital humanities scholars, and others to explore the Gulf as a contested and evolving space. Additional information from Lydia Towns <Lydia.towns(at)sfasu.edu>. From early colonial maritime charts to high-resolution bathymetric modeling, the mapping of the Gulf of Mexico has been central to geopolitical strategy, economic extractions, and environmental preservation. With this conference we aim to examine how the Gulf of Mexico has been defined by the tools used to measure it and the narratives built upon its waters.
April 10-11, 2026 - Paris The History Commission of the French Cartography Committee and the National Library of France are joining forces to organise a symposium to coincide with the exhibition “Cartes imaginaires, imaginaire des cartes <Maps of the Imagination, Imagination of Maps>”. The symposium will be held at the François-Mitterrand site of the BnF in Paris. Additional information from Catherine Hofmann <catherine.hofmann(at)bnf.fr>.
April 14, 2026 - Boston The Leventhal Center invites you to join Yale University professor William Rankin, in discussion with Catherine D'Ignazio, for a conversation about his new book, Radical Cartography. The book—a historical, methodological, and practical exploration of data mapping—brings the last two hundred years of mapping and visualization into conversation with Rankin’s own mapping projects, which have been published and exhibited widely in the US, Europe, and Asia. Lunch will be served and registration is required to attend this event 1:30 PM - 3:30 PM.
April 16, 2026 - Chicago You are invited to join the Chicago Map Society for a special program at the Newberry Library; 5:30 p.m. – social hour (delicious finger food and light refreshments), 6:00 p.m. – Nicholas Lowe will be speaking. Lowe is an interdisciplinary visual artist, writer, educator and curator whose work is known for its contextual and documentary approaches. He holds tenure at the School Of The Art Institute of Chicago as the John H Bryan Chair of Historic Preservation. He is a board member of the International Panorama Council.
April 23-26, 2026 Strasbourg We meet to pursue our shared passion. The 20th International Atlas Days are aimed at collectors, enthusiasts, and experts in historical cartography, with a special focus on the Rhenish cartographic heritage. During the event, we will immerse ourselves in the stories and unique features of historical works and discover the world as it was once seen. This year we will "Focus on France – Atlas Discoveries between the Rhine and the Seine". Look forward to a guided tour of the map department of the Strasbourg University Library (BNU) and a visit to Strasbourg's Neustadt under the expert guidance of Nicole Fischer.
April 23, 2026 – Washington The Washington Map Society will meet at 3:30 pm in the George Washington University Museum and Textile Museum, 701 21st Street, NW for a curator led Tour of the Albert H. Small Washingtoniana Collection. Kasey M. Sease (Curator, Albert H. Small Washingtoniana Collection) will introduce society members to the Albert H. Small Washingtoniana Collection and D.C. history exhibitions on view. Guests will have the opportunity to explore maps off-display in the Albert H. Small Center for National Capital Area Studies. At 6:00 pm the group reconvenes for social gathering at Tonic Restaurant (formerly Quigley’s Pharmacy) across the street at 2036 G Street, NW. Tatter Tots and first Tincture of Tonic will be provided. Social Hour organized by Andrew Reynolds (Membership Chair) and Ronald Grim (Program Chair). Registration limited to 30 people. Link for registration will be available later in January.
April 25, 2026 - New York The New York Map Society has arranged for a private tour of an upcoming exhibition at the Hispanic Society, 3741 Broadway (between 155th and 156th Streets), by LA-based Chicana artist Sandy Rodriguez: Tierra Insurgente, on display April 9 - June 28. Her work, on handmade amate bark paper using natural pigments, will be placed in dialogue with colonial-era cartography, allegories of the Americas, ethnobotanical books, and Indigenous manuscripts, colonial administrative documents, early accounts of the Americas, and objects from the Hispanic Society globes collection that are rarely displayed -- all told, about 16 historical maps. The tour will start at 3:30 pm New York (EST), but prior reservation at <kapochunas(at)gmail.com> is required to reserve a place.
April 27, 2026 - Oxford TOSCA will have a Field Trip – The Queen’s Atlas: Saxton’s Elizabethan masterpiece. David Fletcher (Independent Researcher) has written a book on this subject. Booking essential! For further details, please contact: <nick.millea(at)bodleian.ox.ac.uk> or 01865 287119.
May 5, 2026 - Cambridge (Online) The Cambridge Seminars in the History of Cartography will meet at 5.30pm UK time. Juliette Dumasy, Université d’Orléans, will discuss The rise of local cartography in Europe, 12th-14th century. All are welcome. All seminars will be on Zoom and joining instructions will be circulated nearer the time. Please send an email to <events(at)emma.cam.ac.uk> if you wish to join the mailing list. For any enquiries, please contact Sarah Bendall at <sarah.bendall(at)emma.cam.ac.uk>, tel. 01223 330476.
May 7, 2026 – London (Hybrid) We're very pleased to invite you to this year's Maps and Society lectures in the history of cartography, hosted by the Warburg Institute. Meetings will start at the usual time of 5pm (GMT) on selected Thursdays. All meetings are free and take place online and in person. For those attending in person, meetings will be held in the Teaching Suite at the Warburg Institute and will be followed by refreshments. For those wishing to attend online, please register online in advance to receive a Zoom link on the day. Anthony Terry (Independent Researcher): The Derrotero Ingles: Unravelling the Mysteries of an early 18th Century English Waggoner in Peru. Any enquiries, please email <c.delano-smith(at)sas.ac.uk> or <philip.jagessar(at)kcl.ac.uk>.
May 12, 2026 - Denver (Hybrid) The Rocky Mountain Map Society will meet at 5:30 PM MT in Martin Room, on the 4th floor, History Colorado. In 1539 the Spanish conquistador de Soto embarked on an entrada into the Southeast US. He encountered an extensive Mississippian civilization that preceded the Indigenous nations of the southeast now recognized as the Creek (Muscogee), Choctaw, Cherokee and Chickasaw. Nearly 120 years later exploration by the British in the Carolinas and the French on the Mississippi river resulted in colonization and broad claims of sovereignty by both European nations in addition to historic Spanish claims. Stephen Hoffenberg will evaluate the cartographic content, the historical context and the legacy of three manuscript maps that reflected those explorations and shaped cartographic knowledge of the southeast in published maps for almost two hundred years. Registration is required. Click here when meeting starts for online access.
May 14, 2026 – Washington (Online) Hosted by the Washington Map Society, this Zoom meeting is presented in partnership with the California, Chicago, New York, Philip Lee Phillips, Rocky Mountain, and Texas Map Societies. 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. Dan Cole (former GIS Coordinator, Smithsonian Institution, and Research Cartographer, National Museum of Natural History) will discuss A Cartographic History of Indian-White Government Relations during the Past 400 Years. This presentation offers a historical cartographic examination of Indigenous-EuroAmerican interactions within the United States. It investigates the contributions of governmental, academic, and tribal mapping efforts, integrating these perspectives with various findings. This paper is an updated version of Cole's keynote presentation at the Federal Bar Association's Indian Law Conference in Santa Fe during 2012.
May 21, 2026 - Chicago You are invited to join the Chicago Map Society for a special program at the Newberry Library; 5:30 p.m. – social hour (delicious finger food and light refreshments), 6:00 p.m. – John Scheckter will discuss Our 3 Majors Killed Here: Public and Private Maps of World War I. After the Australian Imperial Force evacuated Gallipoli in 1915, Major R. F. Fitz-Gerald acquired a souvenir map of the battle zone, and marked it with symbols and captions to show his own experience there. We will look closely at this map, its origins and purposes, and at Fitz-Gerald’s continued practice of overwriting and annotating documents, as he transformed mass-produced, often banal, public records of war into meaningful, even therapeutic, personal memoranda of survival.
May 26, 2026 - London (Online) Mark your calendars to attend the 2026 International Map Collectors' Society Malcolm Young annual lecture, to be given by Professor Lauren Beck (Professor, Visual & Material Culture Studies, Mount Allison University, New Brunswick, Canada). At 6:00 pm UK (BST) time she will speak about Sovereign Cartographies: Canada and its Margins. Registration will be required: check back soon at IMCoS' Upcoming Events page for further information and a link.
June 4, 2026 - Oxford (Online) The 33nd Annual Series Oxford Seminars In Cartography run from 4.30pm to 6.00pm (UK time) via Zoom Webinar. Jean-Marc Besse (L’École des hautes études en sciences sociales, Paris) will discuss Geography and Catholic censorship in Europe at the end of the sixteenth century. Click here to book your place. For further details please contact: Nick Millea <nick.millea(at)bodleian.ox.ac.uk>, Map Librarian, Bodleian Library, Broad Street, Oxford, OX1 3BG; Tel: 01865 287119. The Oxford Seminars in Cartography are supported by: The Friends of TOSCA / The Bodleian Libraries / The School of Geography and the Environment / The Charles Close Society / Lovell Johns Ltd.
June 4, 2026 – Windsor The International Map Collectors' Society is planning a visit to Eton College. Additional information to be announced.
June 6, 2026 – London The Annual General Meeting of the International Map Collectors' Society will be held at Royal Geographical Society, Additional details to be announced.
June 6-7, 2026 - London The largest Antique Map Fair in Europe, established 1980, is the London Map Fair. It will be held in the Royal Geographical Society, 1 Kensington Gore. Saturday 12.00 pm to 7.00 pm and Sunday 10.00 am to 6.00 pm.
June 18, 2026 - Oxford (Online) The 33nd Annual Series Oxford Seminars In Cartography run from 4.30pm to 6.00pm (UK time) via Zoom Webinar. JNick Bolton (CEO, Ordnance Survey) will discuss Ordnance Survey: twenty-first-century National Mapping Agency. Click here to book your place. For further details please contact: Nick Millea <nick.millea(at)bodleian.ox.ac.uk>, Map Librarian, Bodleian Library, Broad Street, Oxford, OX1 3BG; Tel: 01865 287119. The Oxford Seminars in Cartography are supported by: The Friends of TOSCA / The Bodleian Libraries / The School of Geography and the Environment / The Charles Close Society / Lovell Johns Ltd.
July 7-11, 2026 – Prague & Brno The 31st International Conference on the History of Cartography will have as its primary venue the main building of the Faculty of Science, Charles University, Albertov 6. The theme is Bridging the Past and Present in Cartography. Click here for preliminary program. Additional information from <ichc2026(at)hiu.cas.cz>.
July 29-August 1, 2026 – St. John's, Newfoundland The Society for the History of Discoveries annual conference will be held at Memorial University. Wednesday, July 29 we will have a reception and presentation in the evening. Panels will run all day Thursday and Friday, with the Annual Banquet Thursday evening. Saturday, August 1, there will be optional tours/excursions. The conference theme is Islands of Discovery. This interdisciplinary conference seeks to examine the multifaceted history and ongoing process of island exploration. Click here for additional details and to register.
September 1-4, 2026 - London (Hybrid) The Royal Geographical Society-IBG Annual International Conference 2026 will be chaired by Professor Peter Hopkins (Newcastle University, UK), on the theme of Geographies of inequalities: toward just places. The conference will take place in the Society and Imperial College London, and online.
September 8-9, 2026 - Edinburgh The Map Curators’ Group of the British Cartographic Society will have a workshop on 8 September and the British Cartographic Society will hold its annual conference on 9 September. More details will be published shortly.
September 12, 2026 - Amsterdam The third Amsterdam Map Fair will be held at the National Maritime Museum in Amsterdam from 10.00 – 17.00. Free entry to The Maritime Museum, 33 national and international antiquarian map dealers will sell antique nautical charts, maps, atlases, globes and prints. With three lectures.
October 1-2, 2026 – Arlington, Texas The 15th biennial Virginia Garrett Lectures on the History of Cartography, Frozen Frontiers: 500 Years of Mapping Antarctica, will take place in the Central Library at the University of Texas at Arlington. Additional details and registration will be available in June 2026.
October 3, 2026 – Arlington, Texas The fall meeting of the Texas Map Society will take place in the Central Library at the University of Texas at Arlington. This event is conjoined with the Virginia Garrett Lectures on the History of Cartography and will focus on Antarctic cartography. Additional details and registration will be available in August 2026.
October 7-10, 2026 - Denver The Western Association of Map Libraries annual conference will be held at Denver Public Library, 10 W 14th Ave.
November 9-13, 2026 - Tokyo and Kyoto The International Map Collectors' Society has been invited by the Japan Map Society to participate in a conference that they would host for international guests with most of the program in English. A pre-symposium tour is planned on 8 November to Nikko and a post-symposium tour is planned for 14-15 September to Kyushu; Japan's most southerly island. Program currently is tentative.
November 18 - 21, 2026 - Istanbul In commemoration of the 500th anniversary of the Kitāb-ı Bahriye, the International Piri Reis and Maritime History Symposium will be held at Piri Reis University. The symposium aims to address the life and works of Piri Reis within their historical context through a multilayered perspective. The symposium will address, through an interdisciplinary approach, topics such as the reflections of Mediterranean-centered maritime experience in the Kitāb-ı Bahriye, Ottoman cartography, the circulation of knowledge during the Age of Geographical Discoveries, maritime strategies in the Mediterranean, and global maritime activities in the Black Sea, the Red Sea, and the Indian Ocean.
2027
September 8-12, 2027 – Amsterdam The International Map Collectors' Society will be holding their International Symposium around the weekend of the Amsterdam Map Fair. Dates are tentative and more information to come.