Maps | Finding Our Place in the World

Living With Maps

People have made maps since the dawn of history, but before the application of printing to mapmaking in the 16th century, few maps made it beyond the governing or religious elites. Printing widened cartography's horizons, and today's digital technologies put maps at the fingertips of millions. Both users and uses have multiplied; we are now using maps in ways that were unimaginable only a few years or even months ago. More than ever maps help us find our place in the world.

Object Highlights:

	A 1583 Dutch map of the Low Countries in the shape of a lion used to unite the citizens under the strongest of symbols
	A satirical map of Italy from 1869
	Cutting edge tools used in digital mapping

Continue to Photo Gallery. >>

Detail at top: Courtesy of The Newberry Library, Chicago