How do maps contribute to a sense of national and cultural identity? During the first decades of the nineteenth century, China was in a moment of transition, grappling with its geopolitical status as both an ancient and modern nation-state. It was in this moment that two series of large-format maps, one terrestrial and one celestial, were printed in the city of Suzhou. These maps were presented in an extraordinary format, on eight vertical sheets printed in the style of rubbings. Even more strikingly, they were rendered in a rich Prussian blue coloring. The blue maps were more than just visually astonishing. They also captured Chinese ideas about the relationship between terrestrial and celestial space, and provide insight today into how Chinese scholars and artists conceptualized the world around them. This exhibition considers these two blue maps in the context of their production, consumption, and functionality, revealing them as unique objects in the global history of mapmaking.URL: https://www.mocanyc.org/event/heaven-earth-the-blue-maps-of-[...]
In 1775, a collision of word-historical forces, driven by ocean-spanning empires, conflicts over trade and settlement, and new ideas about society and government, came together in the spark of the American Revolution. Yet although both the causes and the consequences of the Revolution were grand in scale, the war ignited in the tinderbox of a very specific local geography: Boston and the surrounding towns of Massachusetts. Why did it happen here? The revolutionary moment was as much about places as it was about people or ideas. In and around Boston, the tensions of Britain’s colonial empire had been rising for decades before the 1770s. The commercial geography of the city and its region, zones of friction between classes and communities, and contestations over the environment all helped to create the conditions that led to an era of revolutionary upheaval in Massachusetts. In the Leventhal Map & Education Center’s exhibition Terrains of Independence, maps will offer the entry point to a reconsideration of the Revolutionary War through the lens of locality and place.URL: https://www.leventhalmap.org/exhibitions/
Sea charts are indispensable on board ships. But how did the sea map come into being and why? The cartography exhibition De zee in kaart explores the history of sea charts with atlases and measuring instruments.Venue: Het ScheepvaartmuseumURL: https://www.hetscheepvaartmuseum.com/whats-on/exhibitions/ch[...]
Embark on a daring voyage into the depths of human imagination at the Harvard Museum of Natural History’s new special exhibition, Sea Monsters: Wonders of Nature and Imagination. Featuring ancient mariners' maps, literature, works of art, and natural history specimens, this exhibit explores the allure of serpents, krakens, and other monsters of the deep. Peer into the minds of scholars from centuries past, study sea creatures whose real lives are often more astonishing than the fantastical beings we might have imagined. Dive into the ocean of human consciousness, where dreams and fears entwine with reality, offering profound insights into our world and ourselves. Join us in unraveling the mysteries of the deep sea and the human psyche, where sea monsters—both real and imagined—beckon us to explore the unknown.URL: https://www.hmnh.harvard.edu/sea-monsters
This exhibition invites visitors on a journey to the frontiers of reality and fiction, exploring the links between cartography and the imagination. For while maps usually trace the contours of known lands, they also give shape to imaginary territories that extend, interpret or personalise the real world.URL: https://www.bnf.fr/fr/agenda/cartes-imaginaires
