FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

“From religious pilgrimages and vacation road trips to depictions of the ocean floor and the magical landscapes of J. R. R. Tolkien’s Middle Earth, maps chart both physical and imaginary worlds. As geographer Denis Cosgrove explains: ‘"World" is a social concept … a flexible term, stretching from physical environment to the world of ideas, of microbes, of sin. Arguably, all these worlds can be mapped.’ And they are in this compelling and very readable companion volume to the current exhibition at the Field Museum in Chicago.”
Discover

Maps
Finding Our Place in the World

Edited by James R. Akerman and Robert W. Karrow Jr.

Maps are universal forms of communication, easily understood and appreciated regardless of culture or language. This truly magisterial book introduces readers to the widest range of maps ever considered in one volume. A companion to the most ambitious exhibition on the history of maps ever mounted in North America, Maps will challenge readers to stretch conventional thought about what constitutes a map and how many different ways we can understand graphically the environment in which we live. Collectors, historians, mapmakers and users, and anyone who has ever "gotten lost" in the lines and symbols of a map will find much to love and learn from in this book.

“The Maps exhibition [and book] shows us that the content of a given map is as much determined by culture, historical circumstances, and the interests of mapmakers and map users as it is by the geography that it attempts to depict. From the earliest maps on clay tablets to today’s in-car navigation systems, maps tell us not just where we are but who we are. They are artifacts of—and witnesses to—history. And they continue to inspire us to wonder about our place in the world, and mark it for others to see.”
John W. McCarter Jr., President and Chief Executive Officer of The Field Museum, from his foreword

James R. Akerman is director of the Newberry LibraryÆs Hermon Dunlap Smith Center for the History of Cartography. Robert W. Karrow Jr. is curator of special collections and maps in the Roger and Julie Baskes Department of Special Collections at the Newberry Library.

 

They are available for interviews. For more information, please contact Stephanie Hlywak at (773) 702-0376 or shlywak@press.uchicago.edu