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London and Online,
UK and OnlineA series of lectures on the history of maps and mapping worldwide, from earliest times to the twentieth century, with an emphasis on the social and cultural factors of the maps’ context, production, and use.
To attend online, register here.
Programme
6 November 2025 - Simon Morris (London Topographical Society): Mapping Local London — London Parish Maps to 1900
4 December 2025 - Noémi Ujházy (University of Nottingham): Mapping Soils in the Early 20th Century and the Material Politics of Internationalism
29 January 2026 - Elizabeth Chant (University of Warwick): Road Maps, Leisure Travel and Petro-modernity in 20th Century Argentina
26 February 2026 - Bob Headland (Scott Polar Research Institute): Cartographical Conundrums and Antarctic Sovereignty. Hakluyt Society Speaker
26 March 2026 - Mimi Cheng (Kunsthistorisches Institut in Florenz): Aesthetics and Authority in 19th Century Maps of China
7 May 2026 - Anthony Terry (Independent Researcher): The Derrotero Ingles: Unravelling the Mysteries of an early 18th Century English Waggoner in Peru
Convenors: Catherine Delano-Smith (Institute of Historical Research) and Philip Jagessar (King’s College London).
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Online,
OnlineThe Oxford Seminars in Cartography are a long established part of Oxford’s academic life and are open to everyone with an interest in maps and mapping. The sessions are convened by Elizabeth Baigent, Reader in Oxford’s School of Geography, and Nick Millea, the Bodleian Library’s Map Curator.
Programme
27 November 2025 - Pragya Agarwal (University of Cambridge) - Mapping sense of place: Travels and Maps of May Morris
14 January 2026 - Charlotta Forss (Södertörn University) - TOSCA Field Trip – Mapping the North (in-person event)
12 February 2026 - Camille Serchuk (Southern Connecticut State University) in conversation with Elizabeth Baigent (University of Oxford) - Map Readings – ‘Lies of the Land: Painted maps in Late Medieval and Early Modern France’
12 March 2026 - Vera Dorofeeva-Lichtmann (École des hautes études en sciences sociales) - 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
4 June 2026 - Jean-Marc Besse (École des hautes études en sciences sociales) - Geography and Catholic censorship in Europe at the end of the sixteenth century
18 June 2026 - Nick Bolton (Ordnance Survey) - Ordnance Survey: Twenty-First Century National Mapping Agency
More information and registration can be found here.
Charlottesville, VA,
USAOrganisation: Rare Book SchoolThe Rare Book School is offering a course entitled Material Foundations of Map History, 1450–1900. Registration is open until 17 February. The course will be held from 7 to 12 June 2026.
This course considers the widely variable material conditions of early maps to offer a new introduction to map history that counters the restrictive and flawed teleology inherent to “the history of cartography” or “historical cartography.".
More information here.Entry fee: $1,495
Online,
OnlieOrganisation: Rare Book SchoolThe Rare Book School is offering a course entitled Indigenous North American Cartographies. Registration is open until 17 February. The course will be held from 6 to 10 July 2026.
This online RBS course explores Indigenous North American cartographies as a rich archive for critical bibliography. Focusing primarily on Indigenous American maps materially expressed through Western forms like the codex, this course introduces participants to the history of Indigenous North American cartographies from the earlier colonial periods through today.
More information here.Entry fee: $900
Online,
OnlineConference as part of the Entangled Histories: Borders and Cultural Encounters from the Medieval to the Contemporary Era seminar series. Lectures are held online via zoom. Time schedule: 17.00
Oxford and Online,
UK and OnlineOrganisation: The Bodleian LibrariesThe Bodleian Libraries announce the second Sunderland Collection Symposium: MAPS Digital | Analogue. This day-long event will take place in-person at the Weston Library and online.
Discover the fascinating art and science of digitising historical maps and atlases, the analysis of colour on antique maps, and cutting-edge conservation techniques.
Programme
9.15 - Registration
10:15 - Morning Panel: Digital Discoveries in Maps
Nick Millea: "The Sheldon Tapestry Maps: A Digital Re-Imagining of the Tudor Landscape"
Donna Sherman and Jamie Robinson: "Non Du Tout Descouverte": Exploring the Hidden Lives of Two Maps from the John Rylands Library"
11:45 - Eric de Broche des Combes: "It is pitch black. You are likely to be eaten by a grue".
13:00-14:00 Lunch and Exhibition>
14:00 - Sylvia Sumira: "The Model World, the Model Heavens: the Making and Conservation of Globes"
15:00 - Diana Lange, Oliver Hahn and Sara Öberg Strådal - Afternoon Panel: "Colours on Maps - Purpose and Materiality"
Registration is free but compulsory and can be done here.
Berlin,
GermanyOrganisation: Diana Lange (HU Berlin), Anne-Sophie Pratte (Georgetown University in Qatar), Antje Ziemer (Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin)Over many centuries, numerous manuscript maps were made of the Mongol steppe and Tibetan highlands. These maps constitute a rich repertoire of geographical knowledge and spatial representation, documenting how local actors conceptualized territory, environment, and administrative space across Central Asia. Despite their similarities in mapping style and Buddhist cosmographic influences, Mongol and Tibetan maps are rarely examined together in scholarly studies. This conference brings together Mongol and Tibetan mapping practices under a single scholarly framework, creating a comparative space for examining shared visual conventions, as well as the political, religious, and administrative contexts in which these maps were produced. This will contribute to existing discussions on mapping practices in 18th- and 19th-century Mongolia and Tibet, cartographic changes over time, materiality and transregional exchanges. More broadly, we want to contribute to reframing the scholarly discussions on historical map making before the 20th century, a field that is traditionally centered on European works or East Asian mapping traditions.
This conference will be organized in partnership with the Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin, which holds a significant collection of Mongol manuscript maps comprising 182 items. Participants will engage with this collection through hands-on map viewing sessions at the Library, which will complement the scholarly contributions. We invite contributions that engage with a wide variety of topics connected to Tibetan and Mongol maps, such as materiality, cosmology, linguistics, colors, figurative elements, symbology, architecture, toponyms and textual inscriptions. Topics may also go beyond the maps themselves and touch on how such maps can be used as historical sources to shed light on various relevant questions from di erent research fields. We look forward to exchanging ideas among specialists from across multiple disciplines, such as history, area studies, art history, anthropology, geography, museum studies, and linguistic.
Limited funding may be available upon request for junior scholars and for participants who do not have access to institutional research or travel funds.
Please send a title, abstract, and short bio to tibetmongolmaps@gmail.com before March 1st. The conference will take place from 26 to 28 November 2026.
St. Johns, Newfoundland,
CanadaOrganisation: The Society for the History of DiscoveriesThroughout history, islands have functioned as both isolated laboratories of evolution and central hubs of global maritime networks. From the earliest known navigations, to the European expansions in the "Age of Discovery", and contemporary deep-sea charting, the act of "discovering" an island is a complex event involving story-telling, encounters, scientific inquiry, and mapmaking.
This interdisciplinary conference seeks to examine the multifaceted history and ongoing process of island exploration. We invite scholars from history, geography, cartography, maritime studies, and related fields to submit proposals that interrogate how islands and island encounters relate to global exploration, exchange, and discovery.
The deadline for submissions is 15 March. The conference will take place from 29 July to 1 August 2026.
More information here.Brussels Map Circle event
Brussels,
BelgiumOrganisation: The Brussels Map Circle (BIMCC)
Annual General Meeting
10.00-12.00
The Annual General Meeting (AGM) opens only for Brussels Map Circle active members. All members are encouraged to become Active Member by applying to the President at least three weeks before the meeting .
A personal invitation to this AGM with the agenda and the possibility of proxy vote will be sent out to all Active Members by separate mail at least two weeks before the meeting.
Map Afternoon
14.00-17.00
The MAPAF will be organised in close cooperation with the Maps and Plans Department of the Royal Library of Belgium. Every participant is invited to bring along a map, object, book or anything else of cartographic interest from his own collection to be presented and discussed by the present fellow members. Always an excellent occasion to learn more in a convivial atmosphere. If you have the intention to show an item, please let it know to Henri Godts at henri@arenbergauctions.com
No entrance fee for Members.
Entrance fee for non-Members: EUR 5.00.
Fees are to be prepaid on our bank account before the MAPAF: IBAN BE52 0682 4754 2209 BIC: GKCCBEBB.
No cash payments during the event please.
Practical
Public transport: Central Station and metro station Central Station / Centraal Station / Gare Centrale.
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La Plata,
ArgentinaThis eleventh symposium aims to reflect on the cartographic operations involved in the design and projection of cities, territories and landscapes, as well as to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the first symposium held. The validity of this academic space, which brings together specialists from different disciplines around the history of cartography, invites us to take a balance on the current state of this field of study, and to evaluate its projection in the Ibero-American world.Language: Spanish and Portuguese
Paris,
FranceOrganisation: History Commission of the French Cartography Committee and the National Library of FranceCartography is popular today for two reasons: it appeals to a wide audience, beyond its practical usefulness; and it is not just a matter for specialists. If by ‘popular culture’ we mean the productions disseminated by the cultural industries since the rise of the serialised novel, we can see that the link between cartography and popular culture has only grown stronger with the rise of visual media, television series and video games. Maps are often at the heart of transmedia storytelling, a strategy that deploys a universe or story across several complementary media and invites the audience to explore these different media for an enriched experience.
The History Commission of the French Cartography Committee and the National Library of France organise a one-day symposium on 10 April 2026 at François-Mitterrand. A call for paper is open until 10 November 2025. More information here.Venue: François-Mitterrand (BnF)
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Strasbourg,
FranceThe international Atlas meetings are aimed at collectors, enthusiasts and specialists in historical cartography. This year will focus on the Rhineland's heritage in the field of cartography. The meetings will focus on the historical facts and special features of the works studied and will reveal the world as it was observed in the past.
More information here.
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London,
UKThe largest Antique Map Fair in Europe, established 1980.
We exhibit at the historic London venue of the Royal Geographical Society (RGS).
This event brings together around 40 of the leading national and international antiquarian map dealers as well as hundreds of visiting dealers, collectors, curators and map aficionados from all parts of the world. A very large selection of Original Antique Maps will be available for sale, ranging in age from the 15th C. to the 20th C., covering all parts of the world and priced to suit all pockets.
More information here.Venue: Royal Geographical Society
Amsterdam,
The NetherlandsOrganisation: Librairie Loeb-LarocqueThe next Amsterdam Map Fair will take place on 12 September. Save the date!URL: https://www.map-fair.com/amsterdamBrussels Map Circle event
