Cartography - Calendar of Meetings and Events


New members and visitors are always welcome to attend these events.
Please submit your meeting notices to John W. Docktor <phillymaps(at)gmail(dot)com>
To learn more about non-current maps see Map History / History of Cartography.
Exhibition announcements can be found at Cartography - Calendar of Exhibitions.
Click here for archive of past events.


2024

April 1, 2024 - Stanford David Rumsey has spent the last 30 years building one of the biggest historical map collections in the world. He calls it his poem. The collection now is in the David Rumsey Map Center at Stanford. A Stranger Quest is a documentary film about building this collection. It will be shown and discussed in Hauck Auditorium, Traitel Building, Stanford Campus. 435 Lasuen Mall, from 4:30-7:00 pm. Register here.



April 2, 2024 – Stanford The David Rumsey Map Center will have a presentation Beyond the Pillars of Hercules: A Short History of Maps in Video Games and Virtual Worlds. Andrea Gatopoulos will talk about his journey within the existential folds of the virtual through video-essays, short films and stories orbiting around maps at the David Rumsey Map Center, Green Library Bing Wing, Stanford Campus. 557 Escondido Mall. Talk will be from 2:00-4:30 pm. Register here.



April 3, 2024 – Hong Kong (Hybrid) The Institute of Chinese Studies, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, École française d'Extrême-Orient, and The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology co-organized a lecture series “The Backgrounds of the Chinese Maps / Their Reading and Understanding”. Dr. Isabelle Charleux (CRNS France) will discuss Comment on the Map of the Eastern Turned Right Banner, Inner Mongolia from 4:30-6:30pm at The Institute of Chinese Studies, The Chinese University of Hong Kong. The lecture could be seen via Zoom.



April 3, 2024 – Vienna The annual ordinary meeting of the General Assembly of the International Coronelli Society for the Study of Globes will take place at 5 p.m. at Austrian National Library, Reading Room of the Map Department, Josefsplatz 1.



April 9, 2024 - New York (Hybrid) The Columbia University Seminar on the Renaissance presents Chet Van Duzer speaking on Animals on Maps and our Views of the World. The talk will take place at the New York Faculty House, Columbia University, at 4:00 PM Eastern time. Click here to register for attendance in-person or on-line. Questions to Cynthia M. Pyle, <c.m.pyle(at)nyu.edu>.



April 9, 2024 - Washington (Online) Join from 3:00-4:00 pm (Eastern) Geography and Map Division, Library of Congress, Reference librarians Amelia Raines and Julie Stoner who will present an introduction to the fire insurance maps housed at the Library of Congress, with a special focus on the maps created by the Sanborn Fire Insurance Company. This orientation session will highlight the background of fire insurance mapping, the Sanborn map collections, and fire insurance maps made by other companies held in our division. We will cover how to search for, download, and interpret Sanborn map sheets. Also covered will be which sheets are available online and the future of digitizing these important resources. After the presentation, staff look forward to answering additional questions from attendees. Register for this session.



April 11, 2024 – Hong Kong (Hybrid) The Institute of Chinese Studies, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, École française d'Extrême-Orient, and The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology co-organized a lecture series “The Backgrounds of the Chinese Maps / Their Reading and Understanding”. Dr. Cheng Yinong (Yunnan University) will talk about On the Chinese Administrative Maps Tradition from 4:30-6:30pm at The Institute of Chinese Studies, The Chinese University of Hong Kong. The lecture could be seen via Zoom.



April 11, 2024 - London (Online) Susan Schulten (Professor of History at the University of Denver) will deliver the International Map Collectors' SocietyMalcolm Young Lecture 2024” at 6:00pm UK time. She will speak about The Cartographic Creativity of Richard Edes Harrison. From the 1930s through the 1950s, he produced hundreds of stunning maps and graphics that upended the American public’s understanding of geography in a world governed by war and aviation. The Lecture will be delivered on Zoom and registration is open on Eventbrite.



April 11, 2024 - Milwaukee (Hybrid) Tim Wallace (Senior Editor for Geography at The New York Times) presents the 2024 “Maps & America”: Arthur Holzheimer Lecture at 6 p.m.(5:30 reception) in the American Geographical Society Library, located on the third floor of the UWM Golda Meir Library. The title of his talk is Newsroom Cartography. Registration is required for this in-person and virtual event.



April 11, 2024 - Washington (Online) Hosted by the Washington Map Society, this Zoom meeting is presented in partnership with the California, Chicago, New York, Philip Lee Phillips, Rocky Mountain, and Texas Map Societies. Anyone interested in participating in the meeting must RSVP to John Docktor at washmap(at)gmail.com in order to receive the meeting ID and passcode. Meeting will start at 7:00 PM Eastern Time, 6:00 PM Central Time, 5:00 PM Mountain Time, and 4:00 PM Pacific Time. Leonid Chekin will discuss Svalbard, Paradise and Beyond: The Arctic Islands on Medieval and Early Modern Maps.



April 12, 2024 – New York The New York Map Society invites members to attend a talk by noted cartographic historian Chet Van Duzer (a member of the New York Map Society) at 6:00 pm New York (EDT) time in Arader Galleries, 1016 Madison Avenue, between 78th and 79th Street, on Maps and Power. Particularly since the 1988 publication of J. B. Harley’s essay “Maps, Knowledge and Power,” the role maps can play in both the symbolism and the administration of political power has been widely recognized and discussed. These discussions have not always been as rich in concrete examples as one might wish. In this talk Van Duzer will analyze specific maps that show the various ways in which this intimate relationship has been expressed and implemented, from classical antiquity to the twentieth century. These examples include maps as symbols of power, the capture of maps and resultant military gains, and the replacing of indigenous place names with imposed ones. His hope is that consideration of several diverse ways in which maps have expressed, represented, and generated power will foster a broader understanding of this relationship. To attend, members must RSVP Andrew Kapochunas at <kapochunas(at)gmail.com>.



Apr 13, 2024 - Santa Monica The Southern California section of California Map Society will meet 2:00PM - 5:00PM Pacific Time. Register online.



April 18, 2024 – Chicago (Hybrid) You are invited to join the Chicago Map Society for an informative program at the Newberry Library; 5:30 p.m. – social time with light refreshments; 6:00 p.m. Karen-edis Barzman (Emeritus Professor of Art History) will speak about Government Mapping in Early Modern Venice. Description: In 1460 the Venetian republic mandated something unprecedented – the systematic mapping of its territories, combining quantitative and qualitative data in “true pictures” to be archived and consulted in the inner chambers of government.



April 20, 2024 - Hershey, Pennsylvania The Road Map Collectors Association will have their annual Spring MapCon at the AACA Museum, 161 Museum Drive. Register here.



April 24, 2024 - Canberra Join American cartographic expert Emeritus Professor Dennis Reinhartz as he discusses the exploration and charting of the Americas and the Pacific undertaken by the Spanish from the 15th to the 18th centuries with map collector, curator and author Emeritus Professor Robert Clancy. Lecture, Spanish mapping of Empire, is at National Library of Australia Theatre, 6:00pm – 7:00pm. Entry is free to this event but bookings are essential. The talk will be available to view live online via the Library’s Facebook and YouTube pages. You do not need to book a ticket to watch the event online.



April 24-26, 2024 - Montevideo The X Ibero-American Symposium on the History of Cartography will take place in a collaboration between the Faculty of Humanities and Educational Sciences of the University of the Republic (FHCE-Udelar), the National Historical Museum-National Directorate of Culture of the Ministry of Education and Culture of Uruguay ( MHN-DNC-MEC) and the School of Humanities of the National University of San Martín (EH-UNSAM). The central theme of the symposium, Historias de cartografías en Iberoamérica: mapear un campo de estudios, proposes to enable theoretical-methodological reflection on the history of cartography and historical cartography, as well as to celebrate the consolidation of an academic space that has been forged since 2006 with the biennial celebration of meetings of Ibero-American specialists dedicated to the study of the production and social use of cartographic images in different times and spaces. Registration will be free, and the official languages will be Spanish and Portuguese. Additional information from <xsiahc(at)gmail.com>.



April 25, 2024 - London (Hybrid) - The Thirty-Third Series of “Maps and Society Lectures” in the history of cartography are convened by Catherine Delano-Smith (Institute of Historical Research) and Philip Jagessar (King’s College London) with Tony Campbell and Peter Barber (both formerly Map Library, British Library) and Alessandro Scafi (Warburg Institute). Meetings are normally held on selected Thursdays at 5.00 pm and are followed by refreshment. Enquiries to <c.delano-smith(at)qmul.ac.uk>, or <philip.jagessar(at)kcl.ac.uk>. All meetings are hybrid but please note that for this series all will be held in Senate House, University of London. We strongly encourage all who can to support the speaker by attending in person. All meetings are free but anybody wishing to attend a meeting must, please, indicate their intention at the Warburg Institute's What's On page, to register. Those attending remotely will be sent a link with guidelines. Yvonne Lewis (Assistant National Curator (Libraries), The National Trust) will speak about Marking the miles: some annotated maps in National Trust collections.



April 27, 2024 - Chapel Hill The William P. Cumming Map Society will meet 10a - 12n at Wilson Library on the UNC-Chapel Hill campus. Margaret Pritchard will discuss More than Meets the Eye: Symbolic Messages Conveyed Through Maps. Margaret’s presentation dovetails with "Compasses, Cartouches, and Creatures: Exploring the Art of North Carolina Maps", the current map exhibit in the North Carolina Gallery in the Wilson Library.



May 1-2, 2024 - Sydney On May 1 the Australian and New Zealand Map Society will have a one-day “ANZMaps 2024” symposium, Mapping the Indian Ocean World, from antiquity to the present, held at the State Library of New South Wales. The symposium explores the cartography of the Indian Ocean World reflecting its role in shaping human knowledge, culture and history from antiquity to present. Click here for booking.
   On May 2 there will be a public lecture and workshop organised by the University of Western Australia. The will be limited tickets for the workshop: Looking slowly at early modern maps with Chet van Duzer. Book now. Tickets for the evening lecture, Frames that Speak: An introduction to cartographic cartouches with Chet van Duzer, can be obtained by clicking here.



May 2, 2024 – Washington (Hybrid) The Washington Map Society will meet in person at the Library of Congress, arranged in collaboration with the Library of Congress Development Office and the Philip Lee Phillips Society. The Library will also broadcast the two presentations virtually, and registration information is to be announced. The lectures will be held in the Montpelier Room on the 6th Floor of the Madison Building. The program schedule is as follows:
    Lecture 1, 3:00-4:00 pm, Lauren Beck (Canada Research Chair in Intercultural Encounter; Professor of Visual and Material Culture Studies, Mount Allison University, Canada) will speak about
Extractive Place Naming Practices in Early Modern North America
    
Map Display, 4:00 -5:00 pm, Room adjacent to Montpelier Room
    Lecture 2, 5:00 -6:00 pm, S. Max Edelson (Professor of History, University of Virginia) will speak about
Catawba Cartographies: Remapping the Indigenous Southeast, ca. 1670-1733



May 3-4, 2024 - Austin The Texas Map Society is pleased to host the “2024 Spring Meeting”, All Over the Map, at the Texas General Land Office, 1700 Congress Ave. This event will feature tours of the Ransom Center, the Briscoe Center, the Benson Latin American Collection, and the Texas General Land Office, as well as pioneer land surveying demonstrations and presentations on an assortment of cartographic topics. Click here for program. Click here to register for meeting. Discounted hotel rates are available if booking is made by April 4. For questions one can email TMS President and conference organizer James Harkins <James.Harkins(at)glo.texas.gov>.



May 3, 2024 – Edinburgh (Hybrid) The Scottish Maps Forum will be having a one-day seminar: The Premodern Scottish Place: Mapping, Chorography, History, Landscape, Literature. This seminar will bring together researchers working on the premodern (medieval and early modern) histories of Scottish cartography, chorography, landscape, history, and literature. The seminar forms part of a wider research project relating to Place and Poetry in Pre-Modern Scotland. A related part of this project involves the creation of a new online resource, mapping a small selection of early modern poems relating to Scotland. We will unveil these on the day, inviting comment and review to help to finalise them by the summer. The seminar will involve a series of short talks, with plenty of time for discussion. There will also be an opportunity to view a small selection of relevant collection items in the Maps Reading Room. The seminar will be held in the National Library of Scotland Causewayside Building, Edinburgh, and also online. There will be no charge for the seminar, but you will need to register to attend. Spaces are limited for attendance in person. Further details of speakers, talks and a timetable for the day is posted online.



May 7, 2024 – Cambridge (Online) The Cambridge Seminars in the History of Cartography meets at 5.30pm UK time. Jana Schuster (Historic England & New York University) will speak about The cartographic commissions of John, 2nd Duke of Montagu (1690-1749). All are welcome. All seminars will be on Zoom. For joining instructions, please send an email to <events(at)emma.cam.ca.uk> a few days before each seminar. For any enquiries, please contact Sarah Bendall at <sarah.bendall(at)emma.cam.ac.uk>, tel. 01223 330476. The seminars are kindly supported by Emmanuel College Cambridge.



May 7, 14, 21, and 28, 2024 - Denver The Rocky Mountain Map Society, in conjunction with History Colorado, presents a month-long series of lectures focusing on persuasive maps. All programs will be at History Colorado, 1200 Broadway, and additional details to follow.
  May 7 - PJ Mode. Persuasion” and “Intent” in Persuasive Mapping: “Words Without Thoughts Never to Heaven Go.
  
May 14 - Susan Schulten. The Graphic Legacy of Richard Edes Harrison.
  
May 21 - Dennis Reinhartz. Popular Promotional Cartography of the Southwest: The Art of Persuasion.
  May 28 - Chet Van Duzer. Colonialism in the Cartouche: Imagery and Power in Early Modern Maps.



May 8, 2024 - Richmond The Library of Virginia, 800 E. Broad Street, received a gift of 200 maps from the Emerson Knapp Map Collection. The Knapp collection is composed of maps illustrating North America, British North America, Virginia, the United States and the American Southeast through three centuries of cartographic publication. You are invited to join us 5:30 - 7:00 p.m. as we explore the Emerson Knapp Map Collection. RSVP here.



May 11, 2023 – San Francisco The Bay Area Map Group of the California Map Society will have in-person meeting, from 2 to 5pm, at the home of Len and Juliet Rothman. More information about the event, including how to RSVP, can be found here.



May 16, 2024 – Chicago (Hybrid) You are invited to join the Chicago Map Society for an informative program at the Newberry Library; 5:30 p.m. – social time with light refreshments; 6:00 p.m. Wilbert Stroeve (past president Chicago Map Society) will discuss Games on Maps. Remember Risk? It was probably the first time that he ever heard of geographical regions called Yakutsk and Irkutsk. Over the years Stroeve played many board games and now that he is retired has time for more. It was suggested to do a map talk about those games that involve maps.



May 17, 2024 - Aberystwyth, Ceredigion, Wales Carto-Cymru 2024, The Wales Map Symposium, will be held at the National Library of Wales. This year the theme is ‘Maps and Mapmakers’ and we are looking at the people who make maps. Additional details to be announced. Additional information from Huw Thomas <huw.thomas(at)llyfrgell.cymru>.



June 11, 2024 - Washington (Online) Join from 3:00-4:00 pm (Eastern) Geography and Map Division, Library of Congress, reference librarians for an introduction to the Geography and Map Division collections. This orientation session, aimed at the general public, will highlight a wide range of cartographic formats and subject matter. The focus of the session will be on maps and online resources available to all patrons any time or place in the world. Topics covered will also include search tips and tricks, research and collection guides, ways to engage with the collections online, and how to prepare for a future trip to the reading room. After the presentation, staff look forward to answering additional questions from attendees. Register for this session.



June 15, 2024 – London The International Map Collectors' Society annual general meeting will be held at 10am at the Royal Geographical Society, 1 Kensington Gore.



June 15-16, 2024 - London The London Map Fair is the largest Antique Map Fair in Europe. It will be held at the Royal Geographical Society, 1 Kensington Gore: Saturday 12.00 pm to 7.00 pm and Sunday 10.00 am to 6.00 pm.



June 20, 2024 – Washington (Online) Hosted by the Washington Map Society, this Zoom meeting is presented in partnership with the California, Chicago, New York, Philip Lee Phillips, Rocky Mountain, and Texas Map Societies. Anyone interested in participating in the meeting must RSVP to John Docktor at washmap(at)gmail.com in order to receive the meeting ID and passcode. Meeting will start at 7:00 PM Eastern Time, 6:00 PM Central Time, 5:00 PM Mountain Time, and 4:00 PM Pacific Time. Heiko Mühr (Earth Sciences & Map Library, University of California Berkeley) will speak about Mapping German Americans and Their Communities: Heinz Kloss and His 1974 Ethnographic Atlas.



June 29, 2024 – Stanford (Hybrid) The Spring Meeting of the California Map Society will be held, from 10am to 4:30pm, at the David Rumsey Map Center, Green Library, 557 Escondido Mall. Click here for additional details.



July 1-5, 2024 - Lyon, France Imago Mundi and the University of Lyon will be glad to welcome you back to France during the 30th International Conference on the History of Cartography, postponed from 2023. The idea of organizing the conference in Lyon with the theme Confluences - Interdisciplinarity and New Challenges in the History of Cartography is inspired by the very location of the city, as a confluence between North and South, between Saône and Rhône rivers, the Rhône Valley and the Alps. The official language of the conference will be English, and all presentations must be in that language. There will be no simultaneous translation. There will be a pre-conference visit to Paris and Bibliothèque Nationale de France on June 29th, and a post-conference tour on July 6th. Additional information from <ichc2024(at)univ-lyon3.fr>.



August 27-30, 2024 - London (Hybrid) The Royal Geographical Society (with the Institute of British Geographers) Annual International Conference 2024 will be chaired by Professor Stephen Legg (University of Nottingham, UK). The chair’s theme will explore mapping in all its forms, in a world that is saturated with maps, from historical cartography to the newest technologies and digital practices. The conference venue will be at the Society and at Imperial College London. Additional information from <ac2024(at)rgs.org>.



September 4-7, 2024 – Oldenberg The 21. Kartographiehistorisches Colloquium will be held. Additional details to be announced.



September 7, 2024 – Amsterdam The first international Amsterdam Map Fair will be held at the Maritime Museum from 11.00-18.00. There are extras for members of both International Map Collectors' Society (IMCoS) and The Brussels Map Circle. These include a boat trip and a lunch on the day. There is also an optional concert that evening. Our much-esteemed previous IMCoS Chair, Hans Kok, will be giving an address at the Fair in the afternoon.



October 16-19, 2024 - Valletta, Malta The 41st International Map Collectors' Society annual symposium, Imago Melitae 2024, will feature six lectures by well-known figures in the cartographic world will be given along with visits to the National Library, MUZA and Lascaris War Rooms in Valletta, the Maritime Museum and the Inquisitors Palace in Vittoriosa, and the National and Ecclesiastical Archives in Rabat and Mdina. Further details to be announced.



October 3-5, 2024 - Kansas City The Road Map Collectors Association will have MapCon 2024 at the Hilton Kansas City Airport Hotel, 8801 NW 112th St.



October 4-5, 2024 – Arlington The theme of the 14th Biennial Virginia Garrett Lectures in the History of Cartography is Celestial Charts. Further details to be announced.



October 8, 2024 - Paris The idea of geography being the “eye of history” is a common expression in the early modern period, but it is articulated in a specific way if we take the cartographic object as the point of observation. The map as the “eye of history” (16th-18th centuries) is a study day which will re-investigate the relationship between maps and history in the chronological span from the 16th to the 18th century, in Europe and its imperial extensions, from three angles: the analysis of the place of maps in the teaching and reading of history, an investigation into history on and through maps, and a reflection on the porosity between the producers of historical and cartographic knowledge. With the support of the Centre Alexandre-Koyré (CAK) and the Bibliothèque nationale de France (BnF), the study day will take place in the conference room of the Maps and Plans Department of the BnF on the Richelieu site. Additional inforamtion from <oeildelhistoire2024(at)gmail.com>.



October 24-26, 2024 - San Antonio The Society for History of Discoveries will be partnering with The Texas Map Society for our next annual conference. With its warm weather, beautiful riverwalk, and rich history, San Antonio offers another exciting venue that aligns with our society's broad interests. The conference will be a multiple-day affair that will be near the Alamo and will include an excursion to the nearby Missions. Located directly on Alamo Square, our venue for the annual meeting is the famed Menger Hotel, historic partner hotel of the Alamo.



December 6, 2024 - Paris Following on from the meeting organised on 25 November 2023 in Paris on the intersections between art and cartography, the History Commission of the Comité Français de Cartographie is organising a study day entitled Cartography and Cinema at the National Institut d'histoire de l'art. Additional information from Catherine Hoffman <catherine.hofmann(at)bnf.fr>.



2025

August 26-29, 2025 - London The Royal Geographical Society (with the Institute of British Geographers) Annual International Conference 2025 will be held. Additional details to be announced.



September 11-14, 2025 - Portland, Maine The 42nd International Map Collectors' Society annual symposium will be at the Osher Map Library and Smith Center for Cartographic Education, 314 Forest Ave. We will also be working with the University of Southern Maine facilities. The conference title is New Perspectives on Mapping New England and Maritime Canada. The program opens with an evening reception and possible keynote lecture on Thursday. Friday and Saturday will be lectures during the day and dinner on your own. Sunday, the final day, will be a behind the scenes tour and "Treasures of the Collection" in the morning. Then lunch and a walking tour of Portland in the afternoon ending around 3:00 PM. Closing banquet that night. There will be a post-symposium three-day tour of Maine Monday through Wednesday, September 15-17th. Additional details to be announced. Contact Libby Bischof <elizabeth.bischof(at)maine.edu> for more information.



October 31-November 1, 2025 - Winston-Salem The Museum Of Early Southern Decorative Arts asks you to please save the date for a two day map seminar, Mapping America & Its Expansion, as we explore the American Century and America’s westward migration during the 18th and 19th centuries. Moderated by Margaret Pritchard, Former Curator of Prints, Maps, and Wallpaper at Colonial Williamsburg, lecturers will include JC McElveen, Wesley Brown, and Chet Van Duzer. The seminar will also include a map fair.


Last Updated on March 27, 2024 by John W. Docktor <phillymaps(at)gmail(dot)com>