For Immediate Release PR Contact: 312.665.7100 or media@fieldmuseum.org MAPS: FINDING OUR PLACE IN THE WORLD Journey through Landscapes of Time and Space, Science and Imagination November 2, 2007 to January 28, 2008 What makes maps so hypnotic? Is it their endless detail that magically draws us in? The worlds of possibilities they offer as they take us on vicarious journeys? Their connection to a moment in history? Their sometimes dazzling beauty? Whatever your own connection to maps, you’ll discover unexpected new dimensions of these remarkable objects in Maps: Finding Our Place in the World. This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to see more than 130 of the world’s greatest maps: Maps from ancient Rome and Babylonia. Gorgeous, ground-breaking maps by Leonardo da Vinci and Mercator. Maps borrowed from the Vatican, Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, and the great libraries of the world. You’ll see the oldest road map of Britain and the map that drew the first boundaries around a new American nation. Maps that scarcely look like maps at all: mysterious forms carved in wood, landscapes fired on ceramic vessels, navigational charts composed of sticks and shells. You’ll see maps made by dreamers like J.R.R. Tolkien and by visionaries like the Internet pioneers. You’ll learn how early maps were made, discover how map-making has changed over centuries, and see how map technology is being used by Field Museum scientists today. And in a series of high-tech displays you’ll have a unique opportunity to experience the latest map technologies. Maps: Finding Our Place in the World is organized by The Field Museum and The Newberry Library. In addition to maps from over 60 lenders worldwide, it features artifacts from both organizing institutions, including more than 20 rare maps from the Newberry’s world-famous collections. The exhibition is presented by NAVTEQ. Unfolding the Meanings of Maps Most people think of maps as useful tools to get us from where we are to where we want to go – and of course they are, says James Akerman, Director of the Newberry Library’s Hermon Dunlap Smith Center for the History of Cartography. “But maps tell us much more than where a place is or how to get from here to there,” he adds. “They tell us what’s important to the people who made or used them.” For example, he says, in places where river transport was of prime importance, rivers are shown as much wider than they would be if drawn to scale; modern road maps emphasize drivable roads, with little regard for rivers and lakes; and subway maps note the order of stations, usually without regard for the distance between them. They also tell us what’s not considered important to the makers and users – such as a map of colonial America that completely ignores large Indian nations. World maps are equally revealing. In maps that represent religious or traditional views of the world, a sacred place – Jerusalem for the Medieval Christian world, the mountains of central Asia for Hindus and Buddhists – is often at the center, and spiritual or supernatural realms may appear beside geographic locations. Navigational maps, by contrast, may focus on patterns of wind and waves, on coastlines, or on measurements of latitude, longitude, and angles – all aimed at getting sailors where they need to go. And the Congo artist who created the exhibition’s lukasa memory board – a conceptual map of local chiefdoms, history, and politics – was concerned as much with secret knowledge of Luba genealogy as with visible places. Continue>>