The "Festival of Maps" in Chicago

The Festival of Maps, being held in Chicago, is a collaboration of over 30 cultural and scientific institutions displaying maps representing humanity's boldest explorations. The festival opened November 2, and will continue into 2008.

Four of the maps in the festival are on loan from the American Geographical Society Library. Three are on display in the Chicago Field Museum's exhibition Maps: Finding Our Place in the World. They are:

Mappamundi, by Giovanni Leardo (1452)

Whale chart (preliminary sketch), Matthew Fontaine Maury, A.M. Lieut., US Navy (1851) (detail shown)

[Map of Belcher Islands], Wetalltok (ca. 1909)

The fourth map is on display in the Newberry Library's exhibition Mapping Manifest Destiny: Chicago and the American West. It is:

Map of an Exploring Expedition to the Rocky Mountains in the Year 1842, Oregon & North California in the Years 1843-44, John Charles Fremont and Charles Preuss (With manuscript annotation by George Gibbs, derived from a manuscript map by explorer Jedediah Strong Smith) (1844) (detail shown)

For more information about the festival, visit their website at
www.festivalofmaps.com

Comments for the AGSL? Send them to agsl@uwm.edu.