Don?t let the dusty word “maps” deter you from seeing the astounding show Maps: Finding Our Place in the World.
“I like to call it the greatest show on Earth,” said William Noel, curator of Maps at The Walters Art Museum. “This is not a show of black-and-white atlases. It?s a consummate show of works of art and sculpture, and full of information on religion, history, ecology, politics and the planet Earth.”
Organized by Chicago?s Field Museum, Maps offers viewers over 100 of the world?s greatest visual representations of real and imaginary countries, cultures, cities and events such as London?s deadly cholera outbreak.
American history buffs will be particularly interested in the map of Lewis and Clark?s exploration, and Abraham Lincoln, Thomas Jefferson and George Washington?s contributions to the exhibit?s sixth section, Making America. Viewers can behold John Mitchell?s 1775 red line map marked by hand during the Treaty of Paris to depict U.S. boundaries.
One especially significant piece in Maps is William Smith?s geological map of England, Wales and part of Scotland that provided the evidence Darwin needed to support his theory of evolution, Noel said.
“Not only did Smith?s map help us realize that the world is millions and millions years old, but also it provided the time frame by which man could know that he descended from single-cell creatures. In terms of finding our place in the world, this is as significant as you can get,” Noel said.
Each of the seven rooms in Maps unearths a deeper understanding of the many diverse forms a map can take. Among the most unorthodox are George Shove?s ladies? gloves distributed at the first World?s Fair in 1851 and hand-held wooden carvings from 1884 that represent Greenland?s curvy coastline.
Among Maps? countless impressive offerings are a 1982 map of the first Internet that connected 88 computers, Charles Lindbergh?s New York-to-Paris flight chart with Lindbergh?s annotations, marble fragments of a Roman street plan, John Smith?s 1612 map of Virginia and three works by Leonardo da Vinci.
One entire section in Maps is dedicated to imaginary lands such as J.R.R. Tolkien?s Middle Earth conjured for “The Hobbit” and “Return of the King,” Winnie the Pooh?s Hundred Acre Wood and Robert Louis Stevenson?s Treasure Island.
Festival provides programming all over the map
2008 will be remembered as the year of the map. The Walters Art Museum?s exhibit Maps: Finding Our Place in the World inspired a citywide map festival taking over Baltimore in stages throughout the spring, said Walters Director Gary Vikan. “It?s taken off in ways totally unexpected.”
From March through June, over 35 organizations including Baltimore Clayworks, Maryland State Arts Council, Creative Alliance and Maryland Institute College of Art will host map-related performances, exhibits and activities.
Events will range from the Baltimore Jazz Alliance?s Where?s the Jazz? map exhibit to a lecture on “Mapping the Great Baltimore Fire of 1904” with historian Wayne Schaumburg.
For Art on Purpose?s Maps on Purpose exhibits, participants from at-risk Baltimore City neighborhoods will display the community-made maps they created.
Click here to see the Festival of Maps? complete schedule.
IF YOU GO
Maps: Finding Our Place in the World
WHERE: The Walters Art Museum
600 N. Charles St., Baltimore
WHEN: March 16 through June 8
ADMISSION: adults $12, seniors $8
INFO: 410-547-9000
In conjunction with Maps, The Walters will host lectures, workshops, tours, scavenger hunts, musical performances and activities through June.
