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• Laura Ten Eyck & P. J. Mode: "Just in Case I Don't Live Forever, What Should Happen to My Collection?"

  • When
    Thursday, March 20, 2025
  •  
    7:00 PM - 8:30 PM
  • Location
    Zoom

  Presented in partnership with the California, Chicago, New York, Philip Lee Phillips, Rocky Mountain, and Texas Map Societies.

  Location: Zoom

  Time:  7:00 pm ET/6:00 pm CT/5:00 pm MT/4:00 pm PT

  Title: Just In Case I Don’t Live Forever, What Should Happen To My Collection?

  
  

  Speakers:  Laura Ten Eyck, Gallery Director, Argosy Book Store in Manhattan and Vice President of New York Map Society; and P. J. Mode, lawyer for more than 40 years in Washington DC and New York City and collector of persuasive maps recently donated to Cornell University

  Summary: Originally presented to the New York Map Society in January 2020, this presentation will enumerate various ways of donating or disposing of map collections. The topics that will be discussed include selling at an auction, selling to one or more dealers, selling or giving to an institution, and giving to family or friends.
  

  Planning to attend?   

  Click here to register for this Zoom event. After you have registered, you will receive an email with the Meeting ID and passcode for the event.

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• Kris Butler: "American Drink Maps of the Boston area and towns in Maine and New Hampshire in later editions of Rowntree & Sherwell’s The Temperance Problem and Social Reform"

  • When
    Thursday, April 24, 2025
  •  
    6:00 PM - 7:30 PM
  • Location
    Holland & Knight, 800 17th Street, NW, Washington, DC

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  Presented in partnership with the California, Chicago, New York, Philip Lee Phillips, Rocky Mountain, and Texas Map Societies.

  Location: Holland & Knight, 800 17th Street, NW, Washington, DC
  

  Time:  6:00 pm ET

  Title: American Drink Maps of the Boston area and towns in Maine and New Hampshire in later editions of Rowntree & Sherwell’s 'The Temperance Problem and Social Reform'

  Speakers:  Kris Butler, Senior Career Coach at Holland & Knight, lawyer, and author of Drink Maps in Victorian Britain

  Summary: Kris will share new research since the publication of her book on little known versions of United States drink maps made to persuade lawmakers to reduce the number of places to buy alcohol. Craft beer will be served.
  

  Planning to attend?   

  Attendance is free but registration is required. Please click the orange "Register" button.

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• Map Day at Library of Virginia

  • When
    Saturday, April 26, 2025
  •  
    10:00 AM - 3:00 PM
  • Location
    Library of Virginia, 800 E. Broad St., Richmond, VA 23219

  Arranged by Library of Virginia, with invitation to Washington Map Society members.

  Location: Library of Virginia, 800 E. Broad St., Richmond, VA 232

  Time:  Saturday, April 26 from 10:00 am ET - 3:00 pm ET

  Title: Map Day at Library of Virginia

  Schedule of Events:

  10:00 am - Noon: Map appraisals by Old World Auctions; conservation assessments by Leslie Courtois, LVA Conservator; and guided tours of map exhibition, “Mapping the Commonwealth, 1816-1826,” by Cassandra Farrell, Exhibition Curator and Senior Map Archivist.

  Noon - 1:00 pm: Lunch

  1:00 pm - 3:00 pm: Program presentations

  First Speaker:  Ronald Grim, Vice President and Program Chair, Washington Map Society, with presentation entitled “‘Compiled from Actual Surveys’ The First Official State Maps.”

  Second Speaker: Martin Brückner, Professor of English and Material Culture Studies, University of Delaware, with presentation entitled, “Selling Virginia: State Maps and the Marketplace, 1800-1840.”

  Planning to attend?   

  More details will be announced soon.

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• Map Day at Library of Congress Geography and Map Division

  • When
    Thursday, May 08, 2025
  •  
    1:45 PM - 4:30 PM
  • Location
    Library of Congress, Jefferson Building, LJ119 (Mahogany Row)

  Arranged by the Library of Congress Geography and Map Division and Philip Lee Phillips Society with invitation to Washington Map Society members.

  Location: LOC Jefferson Building, LJ119 (Mahogany Row), 10 First St., SE, Washington, DC 20003. In person only (The event will be recorded with a link to both talks when published on loc.gov).

  Time:  Thursday, May 8 from 1:45 pm ET - 4:30 pm ET

  Title: “Exploring Map Surrounds.” Two presentations with speakers discussing the significance of cartouches and watermarks on maps from Library of Congress collections.

  First Speaker (1:45 pm):  Chet Van Duzer, Historian of cartography, PLPS Fellow, and board member of the Lazarus Project at the University of Rochester, with presentation entitled “Drawing Identity: Cartographic Self-Portraits in the 20th and 21st Centuries.”

  Break (2:45 pm): Break with refreshments and Geography and Map Division display.
  

  Second Speakers (3:15 pm): Dr. Juliet Wiersema, Pre-Hispanic and Spanish Colonial Art History at University of Texas-San Antonio, and Meghan Hill, Preservation Science Specialist at the Library of Congress with presentation entitled, “Sights on Spice. A Historical and Material Exploration of William Hack’s A Description of the Sea Coasts … East Indies”
  

  Planning to attend?   

  More details will be announced soon.

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• Casey Price: "'Our Fire Sits Here': The French Cartography of Indigenous Coalescence in the Native South”

  • When
    Thursday, June 05, 2025
  •  
    7:00 PM - 8:30 PM
  • Location
    Zoom

  
  

  Location: Zoom

  Time:  7:00 PM ET/ 6:00 PM CT/ 5:00 PM MT/ 4:00 PM PT

  Title: “‘Our Fire Sits Here’: The French Cartography of Indigenous Coalescence in the Native South.”

  Speaker:  Casey Price, Recent Ph.D. Graduate and Visiting Teaching Professor, University of Tennessee, Knoxville

  Summary: A polyglot Indigenous group discovered a party of French led by Louis Jolliet and Jacque Marquette along the Mississippi River in 1673. The Frenchmen recorded Cherokee-sourced geographical information regarding the Southeast’s interior, which found its way onto French maps, including Marquette’s Carte da la nouvelle decouverte and Jean Baptiste Franquelin’s Carte da la Louisiane. The de L’Isles adopted alternate ethnonyms on their 1718 Carte de la Louisiane et du Cours du Mississippi from information gathered at an encounter between a Muklasa man and M. de Sauvole’s group along the Gulf Coast in 1701. Scholars have often attributed the changing toponyms on these maps to updated information available to géographes du cabinet or to developing colonial territorial assertions. However, beyond the colonial façade, the evolution of the Indigenously sourced geographic information on French maps during this era provides enticing clues regarding the active coalescence of Cherokee, Creek, and other Southeastern Indigenous peoples amid increasing colonial pressure.
  

  Planning to attend?   

  Click here to register for this Zoom event. After you have registered, you will receive an email with the Meeting ID and passcode for the event.

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• MESDA Map Seminar: "Mapping American Expansion"

  • Start
    Thursday, October 30, 2025
  •  
    3:30 PM
  • End
    Saturday, November 01, 2025
  •  
    5:00 PM
  • Location
    Museum of Early Southern Decorative Arts, Winston-Salem, NC

  The Museum of Early Southern Decorative Arts (MESDA) will be holding a 2-day seminar on "Mapping American Expansion." This event is not sponsored by the Washington Map Society, however several WMS members will be speakers at the seminar.

  

  Schedule of Events:

  Thursday, October 30, 2025
  3:30pm - Advance Registration Required: Moravian Archives Vault Tour
  
  Friday, October 31, 2025
  9:30am - Lectures
  12:20pm - Lunch
  1:20pm - Lectures
  2:30-5:00pm - Map Fair
  3:30pm - Advance Registration Required: Moravian Archives Vault Tour
  5:00pm - Reception & Keynote Lecture
  
  Saturday, November 1, 2025
  10:00am - Lectures
  12:10pm -Lunch
  1:15pm - Lectures
  4:00pm - MESDA Open House & Galleries Open

  The lectures will be accessible both in person and virtually. For more information and to register, please click here.

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