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.
January 15, 2026 - Oxford (Hybrid) Maps have played a central role in our understanding of what and where 'the north' is. At the same time, for much of history the northernmost reaches of our world have been difficult to navigate and verify – from mythical islands on medieval maps to the itineraries of Arctic explorers in the 19th century. This has inspired inventive mapping strategies, as well as ongoing struggles to define what constitutes believable cartographic information. In conversation with Samuel Fanous, Charlotta Forss (Associate Professor in History at Södertörn University, Stockholm) will share a cartographic journey across six centuries, exploring the rich and sometimes contentious history of how mapmakers have understood and processed knowledge about a region they described as ‘the north’. Mapping the North / Myth, Exploration, Encounter will be held at 13.00–14.00 (GMT) in the Weston Library. Book now in person or on line.
January 20, 2026 - Denver (Hybrid) The Rocky Mountain Map Society will meet at 5:30 PM MT in History Colorado, 1200 N Broadway. In 1860, Jefferson Territory overlapped Utah, Nebraska, New Mexico, and Kansas. Federal law included territories in the decennial census, providing more flexibility in counting residents than states received. Census data was originally collected to allocate representatives and manage taxation. Today, online census records provide detailed insights into families, communities, and migration. Census takers sometimes made mistakes but rarely missed entire settled areas. Nancy Prince will discuss The Influence of Four 1860 Territorial Censuses on the Development of the Colorado Map. Please register and get a free ticket for entry to History Colorado for this event, or click here when meeting starts for the Zoom conference (no registration required for Zoom).
January 22, 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. Mark Giordano (Vice Dean for Undergraduate Affairs and Professor of Geography, Georgetown University) will discuss Teaching Geopolitics with Maps. Georgetown University’s “Map of the Modern World” is likely the largest class in the world that still uses maps to teach geopolitics and world affairs. The current instructor will provide examples of how historic and contemporary maps and custom cartography are used to engage students in global issues and help them understand international challenges from multiple perspectives.
January 24, 2026 - Lucerne The Historical Society of Central Switzerland will hold a Central Swiss History Day 2026 – Map History from Central Switzerland. Renowned speakers will present contributions to the map history of Central Switzerland, including a guided tour of the Central and University Library of Lucerne and refreshments during breaks. Click here to register; registration deadline: January 9, 2026.
January 27, 2026 - New York (Online) Jonah Rosenberg, new President of the New York Map Society and head of rare books at Arader Galleries, will speak at 7:00pm (ET) about Dutch Gold: Mapping Dominance in the 17th century, the first in a planned lecture series by Jonah. Dutch (and adjacent) mapping is the gold-standard for the 17th century, and the atlases of the Golden Age are among the most eagerly sought cartographic prizes. Rosenberg will survey the charts, put them in the context of exploration and in printmaking in the era, and share some highlights of the Arader Gallery collections. RSVP to <kapochunas(at)gmail.com> to receive a Zoom link nearer the day.
January 28-30, 2026 - London Do you have an interest in the history of a specific place, landscape and/or historical theme? Would you like to learn more about the evolution of cartography, including how to use old maps in your research? With a focus on mapping practices in Britain and Western Europe between the sixteenth and twentieth centuries, this new 3-day Historic Maps: Interpreting Stories of Place / Discovery Course 1 will introduce you to our vast range of physical map collections, historical maps and topographical rare books. Course is offered by Institute of Historical Research.
January 29, 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. Elizabeth Chant (University of Warwick): Road Maps, Leisure Travel and Petro-modernity in 20th Century Argentina. Any enquiries, please email <c.delano-smith(at)sas.ac.uk> or <philip.jagessar(at)kcl.ac.uk>.
January 30, 2026 - Killingworth, Connecticut Did you miss Brian Tims’s other talk? Join with the Connecticut Map Society for this encore presentation of Antique Map Collecting 101: Foxing, soiling, and worm holes, oh my! as Brian travels the state in the name of maps. Meeting will be at 6pm in Killingworth Library, 301 Route 81. Click here to view the event on the library’s website and to pre-register (after December 5).
February 9-10, 2026 - Perth, Scotland In 2025, UHI’s Institute for Northern Studies, together with our collaborative partners from the National Library of Scotland and Landscape Research Group, launched Mapping Identities: Visual Depictions of Scotland. This project brings together scholars from a wide range of disciplines to explore the ways in which maps have been, and are still, used to interpret and shape Scotland’s understanding of the present, past and future. The project will host a free hybrid conference at UHI Perth to explore this topic with colleagues.
February 12, 2026 - Oxford (Online) The 33nd Annual Series Oxford Seminars In Cartography run from 4.30pm to 6.00pm (UK time) via Zoom Webinar. Camille Serchuk (Southern Connecticut State University) in conversation with Elizabeth Baigent (School of Geography and the Environment, University of Oxford) will talk about Map Readings – ‘Lies of the Land: Painted maps in Late Medieval and Early Modern France'. 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.
February 17, 2026 - New York (Online) New York Map Society Secretary Andrew Kapochunas has, for over a decade, helped people find an image of their ancestral village on an antique map. After recent presentations to JewishGen’s LitvakSIG group and the St. Louis Genealogical Society he’s decided to show How to find any village in Central and Eastern Europe on an antique topographical map to a map audience. In this Zoom lecture, at 7:00pm (ET), he will explain the step-by-step process he himself follows as he searches for images of three towns with which he has deep personal connections. RSVP to <kapochunas@gmail.com> to receive a Zoom link nearer the day.
February 19–21, 2026 - San Francisco The Renaissance Society of America will hold its 72nd Annual Meeting at the San Francisco Hilton Union Square. Ricardo Padrón, Asa Mittman, and Dan Terkla will be having a panel Premodern Mapping Today. They are planning to have papers which address any aspect of mapping in the premodern world (pre-1700), from any mapping tradition. Additional information from Ricardo Padrón <padron(at)virginia.edu>.
February 19, 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. This meeting is arranged in conjunction with the Rocky Mountain Map Society. Whether a trail map of a serene forest or a plot of historical markers in a bustling city, maps help us understand and connect to the spaces we inhabit, creating a feeling of topophilia, or “love of place”. In this talk Astrotopophilia: A Love of Place with Maps of Space, Sam Cartwright (PhD candidate, Department of Geological Sciences, University of Colorado Boulder) will trace the history of planetary cartography from the earliest telescope sketches to today’s high-resolution imagery and explore the indelible link between maps and humanity’s fascination with space.
February 24, 2026 - Cambridge (Online) The Cambridge Seminars in the History of Cartography will meet at 5.30pm UK time. Adrian Webb will discuss Churchill’s secret chart-makers 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.
February 24, 2026 - Denver (Hybrid) The Rocky Mountain Map Society will meet at 5:30 PM MT in History Colorado, 1200 N Broadway. Michael Buehler (owner of Boston Rare Maps) will discuss Where the *%&^# is Polypotamia? Mapping proto-states in the early Republic. This program addresses the question, “What do contemporary maps reveal about state creation in Trans-Appalachia in the years immediately after the Revolution?” This program is illustrated using images of rare, important, and deeply interesting American maps of the era. Please register and get a free ticket for entry to History Colorado for this event, or click here when meeting starts for the Zoom conference (no registration required for Zoom).
February 26, 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. Bob Headland (Scott Polar Research Institute): Cartographical Conundrums and Antarctic Sovereignty. Hakluyt Society Speaker. Any enquiries, please email <c.delano-smith(at)sas.ac.uk> or <philip.jagessar(at)kcl.ac.uk>.
March 12, 2026 - Oxford (Online) The 33nd Annual Series Oxford Seminars In Cartography run from 4.30pm to 6.00pm (UK time) via Zoom Webinar. Vera Dorofeeva-Lichtmann (L’École des hautes études en sciences sociales, Paris) will talk about The unique large-format print of the General Map of the Qing Empire by Li Mingche李明徹 (1751–1832) in Göttingen: tracing its cartographical origins and journey to a German university. 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.
March 19, 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. Louis Miller (Assistant Director for Research and Fellowship Programs and Cartographic Reference and Teaching Librarian, Osher Map Library and Smith Center for Cartographic Education, University of Southern Maine) will speak about Resurrecting ‘Rhat Soupe’: Alcohol and Allegorical Maps in Mid-19th Century America.
March 24, 2026 - Denver (Hybrid) The Rocky Mountain Map Society will meet at 5:30 PM MT in History Colorado, 1200 N Broadway. Learn about one of the earliest European expeditions through present-day Colorado with History Colorado curator Jeremy Morton as we tour the exhibition Expedition 1776: The Journey of Domínguez & Escalante. The tour will be preceded by a brief talk by Wesley Brown about maps in the exhibit.
March 26, 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. Mimi Cheng (Kunsthistorisches Institut in Florenz): Aesthetics and Authority in 19th Century Maps of China. Any enquiries, please email <c.delano-smith(at)sas.ac.uk> or <philip.jagessar(at)kcl.ac.uk>.
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 10, 2026 - Paris The History Commission of the French Cartography Committee and the National Library of France are joining forces to organise a one-day 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 23, 2026 – Washington Kasey Sease, Curator, has invited the Washington Map Society to visit the Albert Small Washingtoniana Collection at the Textile Museum at George Washington University. Meeting is tentatively scheduled from about 3:30 to 5:00 pm (when the museum closes), followed by a social hour at a nearby bar. Additional details to be announced.
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>.
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 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. 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. Additional details remain to be determined.
October 1-3, 2026 – Arlington, Texas The 15th biennial Virginia Garrett Lectures on the History of Cartography will be conjoined with the Texas Map Society’s annual meeting. Both events will take place in the Central Library at the University of Texas at Arlington. The Virginia Garrett Lectures will take place on Thursday and Friday and will focus on the cartography of Antarctica. The Texas Map Society’s meeting will take place on Saturday. Additional details and registration will be available in May 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 8-14, 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.