Yesterday was our anniversary--eleven years!--so we went to Baltimore today. (We met while studying at Johns Hopkins, and Baltimore has always been a place we've both loved.) The Walters was hosting a traveling exhibition done by the Field Museum and the Newberry Library in Chicago. It's about maps, and it's extraordinary.
These maps cover the range of history, from sketches from ancient Rome to maps of Italy by Leonardo DaVinci, loaned by Queen Elizabeth II. They cover social science, from language mapping to disease outbreaks, and natural science, from whale populations to the ocean floor. They cover the old Edo Road in Japan, and the imaginary worlds of Winnie-the-Pooh and J.R.R. Tolkien. Oddly, my hometown of Milford is on the 1700s colonial map--it always seemed a small sleepy town, but it was actually a significant port during the colonial period of this country.
For me, though, two stood out. One was a pair of wood carvings, used by Greenland Inuit to navigate the coast. (Both images from the Walters' website on the Map exhibit, at http://www.thewalters.org/maps/exhibitions_images.html.)
The other was just amazing to see. I'd read a book not very long ago called The Map That Changed the World by Simon Winchester. He's one of my favorite authors. This book told the story of William Smith, an Englishman, who developed the first geologic map of the world by walking the country of England. His map demonstrated the stratigraphic layers of rock and, by comparing fossils found in those layers, helped to prove the theory of plate tectonics. This picture doesn't do it justice, but it's similar to what I was using with the book. The actual is several feet wide and approximately ten feet tall, and is incredibly beautiful.
Anyway, if the exhibit it headed toward you, it is worth a visit. The Walters is worth a visit too! We didn't get to spend any other time in Baltimore today--we're off to dinner tonight before I leave for Canada in the morning.
No comments:
Post a Comment