Date: September 19, 1991
Title: Exposition in the History of Soil Cartography
Speaker: John Tandarich, PhD Candidate in Soil Science, The Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Sciences, University of Illinois-Urbana and Soil Scientist and Archeologist with Hey and Associates, Chicago, Ill.
Location: Fellows’ Lounge, The Newberry Library
John’s presentation will explore the development of soil mapping in the United States from its earliest beginnings in the 19th century with particular emphasis on the exchange with Russian scientists at the 1893 Columbian Exposition in Chicago. In addition to maps, John will discuss a number of interesting personalities.
Date: October 10, 1991
Title: The Story Behind Joseph La France’s Map
Speaker: Helen Tanner, Historian, The Newberry Library
Location: Fellows’ Lounge, The Newberry Library
The La France map was published in 1774 by Arthur Dobbs, a prominent British politician and supporter of the search for the Northwest Passage. The original draft was drawn on the floor of a London residence. Research into the thousands of miles of canoe travel by La France indicates the disparity between his personal geographic knowledge and erroneous details incorporated in the map.
Date: November 14, 1991
Title: Military Architecture, Cartography, and the Representation of the Early Modern European City
Speaker: David Buisseret, Director, Hermon Dunlap Smith Center for the History of Cartography, The Newberry Library
Location: Fellows’ Lounge, The Newberry Library
David Buisseret will give a short talk and then lead a visit to the newly opened exhibit, Military Architecture, Cartography, and the representation of the Early Modern European City. This exhibit, curated by Martha Pollak of the University of Illinois at Chicago, was designed to accompany the 1991 Nebenzahl Lectures.
Date: December 9, 1991
Title: Members’ Show-and-Tell
Speaker: Members of the Chicago Map Society
Location: Como Inn, Chicago, Ill.
For our annual holiday meeting, we will have a gala dinner including wine, at the Como Inn (546 North Milwaukee Avenue). This year we are returning to the traditional members’ show-and-tell night. Please bring any of your greater or lesser treasures to share with us.
Date: January 16, 1992
Title: Prospects of Plenty: The Meaning of American County Atlases
Speaker: Michael Conzen, Professor of Geography, The University of Chicago
Location: East Hall 1st Floor, The Newberry Library
Professor Conzen will outline for us many of the uniquely American characteristics of 19th century county atlases. He will highlight such areas as their cartographic appearance, business history, customer appeal, and social significance.
Date: February 20, 1992
Title: Map Decoration as Visual Poetry: from Hans Holbein to Ernest Dudley Chase
Speaker: Gary Plazyk, Associate, A. T. Kearney, Inc., Chicago
Location: Fellows’ Lounge, The Newberry Library
Gary Plazyk, CMS Member and an associate with A. T. Kearney, a Chicago-based management consulting firm, will speak to us on “Computer Cartography.” Gary’s presentation will demonstrate and review several PC-based mapping packages that many of us should find useful and affordable. A handout will be provided with a summary of the software packages demonstrated.
Date: March 19, 1992
Title: The Mid-Nineteenth Century Transportation Revolution: A Look at Early Railroad and Canal Maps
Speaker: Jerry Musich, Executive Director, Roscoe Village, a restored canal-era town
Location: Fellows’ Lounge, The Newberry Library
The transport revolution, led particularly by the development of railroads, helped transform the Midwest from an undeveloped rural area dependent on subsistence farming to an economically diverse and vibrant region of cities, large industries, and cash crop farming. Jerry’s talk will concentrate on how cartographers attempted to keep pace with this period of rapid growth and change.
Date: April 16, 1992
Title: Vincenzo Coronelli and Misplacing the Mississippi 1683
Speaker: William Wilkie, Long-Term Fellow, Hermon Dunlap Smith Center
Location: Fellows’ Lounge, The Newberry Library
William Wilkie, a graduate of the Universities of Fribourg (Switzerland) and Cambridge (England), is currently a Long-Term Fellow at the Smith Center working on the mapping of the Mississippi from 1500–1830. Bill’s talk tonight, “Vincenzo Coronelli and Misplacing the Mississippi 1683,” will bring out La Salle’s mistaken concept that the Mississippi entered the western end of the Gulf of Mexico through Texas and its incorporation on Coronelli’s great globe made for Louis XIV. This gross error became a standard feature on maps for a generation.
Date: May 21, 1992
Title: Maps and the Columbian Encounter
Speaker: Kenneth Nebenzahl, Map Dealer and Author
Location: East Hall 1st Floor, The Newberry Library
This month’s meeting is a special event, as the enclosed invitation explains. We will convene in the East Hall at 5:30 PM for our annual business meeting, including the election of officers. Then at 6:00 PM we will reconvene in the same room for a lecture and reception in honor of the new Maps and the Columbian Encounter exhibit. The Map Society has joined several other organizations in supporting this gala event.