The Walters Art Museum will present “Maps: Finding Our Place in the World” March 16⁊une 8.
From clay tablets to sea charts, from satellite navigation systems to tantalizing sketches of worlds real and imagined †maps tell much more than how to get from point A to point B. They help viewers visualize inhabited places, see and study the unknown, understand their place in the world as it is and shape it for the future.
This rare exhibition of the world’s greatest maps features more than 100 exquisite original maps, globes and artifacts. “Maps: Finding Our Place in the World” is a journey through landscapes of time and space, science and imagination.
The exhibition will include maps created by American historical figures like Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Jefferson, by scientists like Leonardo da Vinci and Ptolemy, by writers like J.R.R. Tolkien and William Faulkner and by explorers like Charles Lindbergh, Meriwether Lewis and William Clark.
The oldest road map of Europe and the map that drew the first boundaries around a new American nation will be on view, in this, the most ambitious American exhibition devoted to maps in more than 50 years.
Organized by Chicago’s Field Museum and The Newberry Library, “Maps” is part of a citywide celebration organized by the Greater Baltimore Cultural Alliance to encourage Baltimore residents and visitors to explore museums, theaters, galleries and educational institutions. From March 16 through June 30, more than 25 local arts and culture organizations will offer map-related exhibitions, performances, workshops, walking and driving tours, seminars and lectures, and family programming.
The Walters is at 600 North Charles Street. For more information, 410-547-9000 or www.thewalters.org .
