-------- Original Message --------
Subject:        Washington Map Society Meetings, April-May
Date:   Mon, 31 Mar 2008 18:36:16 -0400
From:   Iris Wallace Taylor <[log in to unmask]>
To:     <[log in to unmask]>


1. April: Early American Maps in Charlottesville

On Saturday, April 5, 2008, WMS members are invited to celebrate spring
by spending the day in Charlottesville.  The highlight will be a guided
tour, beginning at 9:30 am, of the exhibit, “On the Map”: American
Maps from 1500 to 1800 from the Seymour I. Schwartz Collection, which
will be in the main gallery of the Mary and David Harrison Institute for
American History, Literature, and Culture, and the Albert and Shirley
Small Special Collections Library, University of Virginia.  A second
event, beginning at 2:00 pm, will be a University of Virginia Tour,
guided by local historian and cartographer Rick Britton.

Morning: “On the Map” will feature three centuries of early
American maps from the Schwartz collection.  The exhibition brings
together a selection of rare and significant maps that chronicle the Age
of Exploration, European empire-building, the French and Indian War, and
the American Revolution. “On the Map” explores the many layers of
information contained within maps, highlighting the artistry of their
production, the history of cartography, and changes in printing and
navigational technologies.  Several icons of early cartography of the
Americas will be on display: Ruysch, Popple, Cortes, Champlain and
Hennepin, among others.  As noted above, the morning event will start at
9:30 am: you should arrive in the downstairs auditorium (NOT the gallery
on the entry level) of the special collections library a few minutes
early. Special collections opens at 9 am on Saturdays.  To find the
Library, refer to #19 on this map.  Refer to this link for directions to
the University and for information on parking.  The best parking place
is in the University Book Store parking lot on Emmet St.

Afternoon: During the afternoon tour, we'll take an in-depth look at
the project Jefferson called "the hobby" of his old age: the University
of Virginia. We will learn about the University's creation, see the
various floors of the institution's world-famous Rotunda, and tour the
original grounds and gardens. Along the way your guide will describe the
people and events that comprise the UVA’s fascinating history,
including Jefferson, James Madison, the Marquis de Lafayette, Edgar
Allan Poe, and William Holmes McGuffey (editor of the famous Eclectic
Readers).  Cost of the tour depends on number of participants, but will
probably be around $15 per person. You will reimburse Joel Kovarsky for
this event, and he will handle payment to Rick Britton.

Please Note: You will need to sign up for both the On the Map visit and
the University of Virginia tour.  Please indicate your intention to
participate or direct any questions to Joel Kovarsky at
[log in to unmask]  Lodging or meal arrangements should be
made individually.

2.  Also April: Renaissance Mapping

On Thursday, April 17, 2008, at 7:00 pm, Dr. Francesca Fiorani will
address the Society on The Places of Renaissance Mapping.  Renaissance
maps combined different systems of representation, different modes of
description and different signs, commingling features of medieval
cartography with the quintessential feature of modern mapping, the grid.
 How shall we account for the ways in which places were represented in
European maps?  Dr. Fiorani will discuss an approach to Renaissance maps
that takes into account simultaneously their spatial and cultural
context.  She believes that the meanings of cartographic artifacts -from
individual prints to painted galleries and atlases- are best understood
by combining an investigation of the maps themselves and the spaces that
contain them with an analysis of mapping in relation to other forms of
knowledge and representation.  Francesca Fiorani received her Ph.D. in
Renaissance Art from the University of Rome “La Sapienza” and joined
the University of Virginia in 1995.  She has written extensively on
Leonardo da Vinci, Renaissance cartography and mapping, scientific
culture in Renaissance courts, and artistic theory.  Her recent book The
Marvel of Maps. Art, Cartography and Politics in Renaissance Italy,
focuses on two compelling map murals of the Renaissance - the Guardaroba
Nuova of the Palazzo Vecchio, Florence, and the Gallery of Maps in the
Vatican.

3.  May: Map Treasures in Baltimore

 Baltimore Field Trip Double-Header

On Saturday, May 3: The Baltimore Festival of Maps offers the
opportunity to visit two excellent exhibitions, and we will have a field
trip to do just that.

→In the morning, at 10:30 am, we will visit the Maryland Historical
Society, 201 West Monument St., to view an exhibition that will include
its original Mason-Dixon map.  A curator will discuss the map of the
“boundary between the provinces of Maryland and Pennsylvania,”
printed by Robert Kennedy in Philadelphia in 1768. The map documents a
survey by astronomer Charles Mason and surveyor Jeremiah Dixon that took
the two men took almost six years to complete.  Commissioners for both
colonies signed this print of Mason and Dixon’s “true and exact”
plan in 1768 and affixed their wax seals. (Three of them were later to
sign the Declaration of Independence.) The exhibit will feature
additional historic maps and documents recording the eighty-year dispute
between Maryland and Pennsylvania, alongside samples of surveying
instruments of the day.

→At 2:00 pm, we will visit the Walters Art Museum, 600 North Charles
St., just three blocks from the Historical Society, for a tour of Maps:
Finding Our Place in the World.  This is the most significant map
exhibition in Baltimore since the great show more than 50 years ago.
Organized by The Field Museum and the Newberry Library, this special
exhibition will draw on the outstanding exhibitions that recently closed
in Chicago.  It will include some of the world’s greatest cartographic
treasures, not only maps made by great cartographers of the Middle Ages
and the age of exploration, but also seldom-seen artifacts that broaden
our knowledge of the almost universal human activity of map-making.
Highlights include three maps by Leonardo da Vinci, J. R. R. Tolkien’s
map of Minas Tirith, and Thomas Jefferson’s map of the proposed
contours of the states of the Union.  Our guide to the exhibition will
be Will Noel, Curator of Manuscripts and Rare Books.

→Please register for one or both of these tours.  Restaurants for lunch
are convenient to the museums.  There should be ample parking at the
Maryland Historical Society.  Group rates per person for the tours are
$8 for the Walters and $3 ($2 for seniors) at the Maryland Historical
Society.  Sign up with Howard Lange at [log in to unmask] or
703-532-1605.

Howard Lange

Vice President and Program Chair

Washington Map Society--www.washmap.org