Nebenzahl Lectures in the History of Cartography, Oct. 2013

The War of 1812 and American Cartography

The Eighteenth Kenneth Nebenzahl, Jr., Lectures in the History of
Cartography
The Newberry Library, Chicago
October 24-26, 2013

The Newberry Library’s Hermon Dunlap Smith Center for the History of
Cartography is pleased to announce “The War of 1812 and American
Cartography,” the 18th Kenneth Nebenzahl, Jr., Lectures in the History
of Cartography. The series, beginning on Thursday evening, October 24,
2013 and running through Saturday morning, October 26, will consider how
the evolving geopolitical ambitions of the United States that
underpinned the War of 1812 were linked to the emergence of an American
national cartography.

North Americans on both sides of the U.S. – Canada border are
commemorating the bicentennial of the War of 1812 in 2012-15. But while
Canadians remember the war as a formative national event, Americans
remember it (if at all) as a comparatively minor event in their history,
overshadowed by the memory of the Civil War, whose sesquicentennial is
also currently being commemorated. Similarly, the War of 1812 has barely
raised a ripple in American carto-historiography. Yet the decades
immediately preceding and following the war, roughly encompassing the
years 1800-1830 embraced the first exploratory expeditions organized by
the federal government; expansive mapping devoted to settlement,
migration, and the improvement of infrastructure; the beginnings of
American pedagogic, historical, and commercial cartography; and the
formation and entrenchment of state and federal agencies devoted to
surveying and mapping. The seven invited contributors to this eighteenth
series of the Nebenzahl Lectures will explore these and other themes,
asking whether and in what ways the War of 1812 and its aftermath was a
formative period in American cartography and its representation of
American geopolitical ambitions and identity.

The Nebenzahl Lectures are free. However, we do ask that all persons
wishing to attend make a reservation. For reservations and further
information please contact Kristin Emery, The Hermon Dunlap Smith Center
for the History of Cartography, 60 W. Walton Street, Chicago, IL 60610
USA; e-mail: [log in to unmask]; phone 312-255-3657.

Contributing lecturers:
James Akerman, Curator of Maps and Director, the Hermon Dunlap Smith
Center for the History of Cartography, Newberry Library
Martin Brückner, Associate Professor, English Department and Center for
Material Culture Studies, University of Delaware
John Cloud, Historian, NOAA Central Library
Imre Demhardt, Jenkins and Virginia Garret Chair in Southwestern Studies
and the History of Cartography, University of Texas at Arlington
Ann Durkin Keating, Dr. C. Frederick Toenniges Professor of History,
North Central College
Susan Schulten, Professor and Chair, Department of History, University
of Denver
Scott Stevens, Director, D’Arcy McNickle Center for American Indian and
Indigenous Studies, Newberry Library