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first published week of: 11/02/2015
Featuring the first map of the Pacific Ocean floor and first immigrant map of an American city.
Women in Cartography: Five Centuries of Accomplishments, documenting the transitioning role of women in cartography over the past 500 years, opens Saturday, October 31, at the Norman B. Leventhal Map Center at the Boston Public Library’s Central Library in Copley Square. The exhibit features 40 maps, globes, atlases and works of art from the 17th century to the present made by women, and charts the evolution of their role in cartography from engravers in the 16th century to designers and creators in the present day. The exhibition is curated by Alice Hudson, retired Chief of the Map Division at the New York Public Library, and co-curated by Norman B. Leventhal Map Center Assistant Curator of Maps, Stephanie Cyr.
“Women in Cartography reveals the transition of women in professional cartography from their marginalized history to their current role as map makers,” said curator Alice Hudson. “It reveals the powerful contribution and creativity of women in all areas of the cartographic profession.”
Exhibit visitors will view 17th and 18th century maps published, engraved, and designed by women; 19th century atlases and globes; 20th century colorful and lively pictorial maps promoting regional tourism; as well as examples of present day digital and GIS maps.
Exhibit highlights include the first map of the Pacific Ocean floor, created by Marie Tharp, a cartographer and geologist working at Columbia University’s Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, and a late 19th century map showing immigrant settlement in Chicago compiled by Agnes Holbrook, a graduate of Wellesley College and a resident of Jane Addams Hull House. This map is one of the first to depict immigration in an American city, and also foreshadows modern GIS mapping, using color and statistics to present social data.
Women in Cartography runs October 31, 2015 through March 27, 2016. The Leventhal Map Center is located in the Central Library in Copley Square, 700 Boylston Street. It is open Monday – Thursday: 10 a.m. – 7 p.m.; Friday and Saturday: 10 a.m. – 5 p.m.; and Sunday: 1– 5 p.m. The best entrance to the BPL to access the exhibit is via the Dartmouth Street entrance at the McKim building, which faces Copley Square.