Find your way to the city’s Festival of Maps at the Walters
by Celeste H. Breitenbach
What do Ptolemy, George Washington, Leonardo da Vinci, Abraham Lincoln, Mercator, J.R.R. Tolkien, Piri Reis, Charles Lindbergh and Erhard Etzlaub have in common?
They all drew maps that are included in the more than 100 that are on display in “Maps: Finding Our Place in the World” through June 8 at The Walters Art Museum, downtown at 600 N. Charles St.
Etzlaub, by the way, produced what is the oldest surviving printed road map. In 1500 he drew up an entire Road Network of the Holy Roman Empire “Das Ist der Rom Weg (This Is the Way to Rome)” for Christian pilgrims to find their way to Rome from all over Europe.
Don’t miss this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to see the world’s greatest maps assembled here in Baltimore. The maps are on loan from great libraries throughout the world.
HAND ME THE MAP-A map of London during the Great Exhibition of 1851 is printed on a leather glove.
They are made of clay, marble, cloth, papyrus, parchment, eucalyptus bark, wood, ceramic, twine and beads — even a glove.
“We are so pleased to have maps drawn from cultures and collections from around the globe,” said The Walters Director Gary Vikan.
The maps range from a 1300 B.C. clay tablet “Town Plan of Nippur” in Mesopotamia (about 100 miles southeast of present-day Baghdad) and a (ca. 332-30 B.C.) ink on papyrus “Lake of Faiyum, Egypt” to an Inuit wood carving of Greenland’s Coast to Charles Lindbergh’s 1927 New York to Paris Flight Chart and a photograph of Earth from Space taken in 1972 by Apollo 17 astronauts; with much, so much more, in between.
Among the treasures are:
Marble fragments from 203-211 A.D. of a “Plan of Rome” originally over 40 feet high and 60 feet long engraved with all the streets and structures of the city, compiled from property tax maps.
A carved stone (from 1400-1532) marking an Inca Ritual Site.
A 1448 interpretation of an original drawn ca. 600 of a worldview in its simplest form of a single ocean surrounding three continents separated by a “T” of rivers and seas.
A Renaissance Christian World Map (1452) incorporating the latest geographic information learned from Marco Polo’s expedition to Asia.
A 16th-century copy of “The Marvel of Created Things” drawn by Al-Qazvini, a 13th-century Persian, showing the Islamic view of the world.
Mercator’s Projection (the 1569 New and Accurate Description of the Terrestrial Globe, Amended to Suit the Uses of Navigation) depicting a spherical Earth on a flat surface.
The Road Network of Japan during the Edo Period (1694).
A 1776 Buddhist Cosmology Map illustrating their concept of three worlds.
An 1860 Aerial Photograph of Boston taken from a hot air balloon.
And imaginary worlds mapped by Jonathan Swift in “Gulliver’s Travels”, the Hundred Acre Wood in A.A.Milne’s “Winnie-the-Pooh”, Robert Louis Stevenson’s Treasure Island, Tolkien’s imaginary realm and Czech artist Jaro Hess’ “The Land of Make Believe” assembling places listed in nursery rhymes and fairytales.
Other maps depict The Loss of Men during Hannibal’s March to Italy in 218 B.C. and Napoleon’s March to Moscow in 1812-13, Wage and Ethnicity on Chicago’s Near West Side in 1895, and the Illiteracy Rate in England and Wales in 1849.
There is a 1755 map of British and French Dominions in North America later used at the 1782-83 negotions to end the American Revolution on which delegates drew a red line to establish the boundaries of the new nation and presented it to King George III.
A map of Cholera Deaths in London in 1855 by Dr. John Snow that helped him prove the terrifying epidemic could be traced to a water conduit.
“Maps: Finding our Place in the World” is a special ticketed exhibition with a fee of $12 adults; $8 seniors, $6 College students/young adults (18-25); Age 17 and under and Walters members free. Purchase ticketrs at www.ticketmaster.com, 800-551-SEAT or by calling 410-547-9000, x265.
Globes: Don’t miss the 1698 Celestial and Terrestrial Globes in the 18th-Century Italian Paintings Gallery.
Related Exhibitions
Two smaller companion shows also are on view at The Walters.
“Mapping the Cosmos: Images from the Hubble Space Telescope” presents awe-inspiring, breathtaking images of the universe taken by the Hubble telescope. This exhibition will continue through July 27.
A “Maps on Purpose” project by Art on Purpose - a community arts-based organization that uses art to bring people together around issues and ideas - addresses specific needs and wants of various neighborhoods. The exhibition, through June 8, will change eight times and feature a new selection of neighborhood maps in each rotation.
Festival of Maps: Through June 30, more than 25 local arts and culture organizations will offer map-related exhibitions, performances, workshops, walking and driving tours, seminars, lectures and family programming. This “Festival of Maps” organized by the Greater Baltimore Cultural Alliance is a citywide celebration to encourage residents and visitors to explore museums, theaters, galleries and educational institutions. For more information, visit www.baltimorefestivalofmaps.com.