Founded in 1976, the Chicago Map Society is the oldest map society in North America. Meetings are held during the academic year at the Newberry. They begin with a social half-hour, followed by a 45-minute presentation and a brief question-and-answer session. The society occasionally arranges excursions to local map libraries or mapping institutions and often dedicates one meeting a year as an opportunity for members to share their own maps with the group.
Meetings are held monthly during the academic year (September – May/June) at 5:30 pm at the Newberry. Meetings are open to the public. We do, however, ask for a $5 donation from non–Map-Society members to help support program costs, which are covered by members’ annual dues.
There are no special qualifications for membership; the only requirement is an interest in maps. Members of the Chicago Map Society are automatically subscribed to Mapline, the newsletter of the Hermon Dunlap Smith Center for the History of Cartography at the Newberry. If you would like to join the society, please send your name, mailing address, e-mail address, and $25 for academic-year dues to:
Treasurer
Chicago Map Society
60 West Walton Street
Chicago, IL 60610
To see a list of past meetings, please select a year below:
Meeting Schedule
How are Townships and Sections divided? Kevin C. Lewis, a working land surveyor for the past 25 years, will present a lecture on the history and origin of the Public Land Survey System in Illinois. Mr.
Guillaume De L’ Isle (1675-1726), “the first modern scientific cartographer,” leader in the eighteenth century “reformation of cartography” and “premier geographe du roi”, gained lasting renown for his cartographic output of roughly 90 ma
Through the study of maps, Wes Brown will investigate man’s conception of the shape of the Earth through history and will give particular focus to the discovery of the New World. This general survey will begin with Homer in the 8th century B.C.
Please join us for our holiday party, with extended refreshments, popcorn, and a light-hearted cartographic program.
What are the legitimate borders of Israel? Who should determine where they fall? When should the borders become permanent? These are just a few of the controversial questions that surround Israel’s border disputes.
Maps on postcards make up an enormous body of miniature maps that include examples of just about every topic and task for which maps are used in the world at large—plus others found only in the postcard world—from entertainment to way-finding.
The “Marquette Map,” said to have been drawn in 1674 by Father Jacques Marquette and now preserved in Montréal, has been thought by some to be a relatively recent forgery.