-------- Original Message --------
Subject:        America Votes: Mapping the Political Landscape
Date:   Fri, 6 Apr 2012 09:40:54 -0400
From:   Thornberry, Evan <[log in to unmask]>
To:     Maps, Air Photo, GIS Forum - Map Librarianship
([log in to unmask]) <[log in to unmask]>



April 12 –November 11, 2011.

/America Votes: Mapping the Political Landscape / is on display in the
Norman B. Leventhal Map Center Gallery on the ground floor of the Boston
Public Library at Copley Square. It includes approximately 30 maps,
political cartoons, photographs and other graphic images dating from the
1780s to the present. With each election Americans have become
accustomed to seeing national maps colored red and blue signifying
Republican and Democratic voting patterns. Presenting election results
has long intrigued mapmakers as the maps and graphics in this exhibition
reveal. Examples range from several early efforts to the most recent
campaigns. The display also features the original Gerrymander cartoon
published in the /Boston Gazette/, March 26, 1812, and includes maps
illustrating the extension of the vote to non-property owners, blacks,
and women. These issues are represented in several examples that also
show the importance of the states as the proxy for the voice of the
people they represented. Efforts to legislate behavior, such as
prohibition, were another aspect of mapping the political landscape.

Thanks,

Ronald E. Grim

Curator of Maps

Norman B. Leventhal Map Center

Boston Public Library

700 Boylston Street

Boston, MA 02116

617-859-2375