Current and Coming Exhibits

	"Great Northern Railway Map Showing Northern Pacific Railway System, Great Northern Railway System, Chicago, Burlington & Quincy R. R. System."
	The Gold Regions of California, 1849. Newberry Library Map 4F 4361 .H2 1849 E5a
	John Disturnell. Mapa de los Estados Unidos de Méjico, 1847.  Newberry Library Graff 1092

Mapping Manifest Destiny: Chicago and the American West
November 3, 2007 – February 16, 2008

Smith and East Galleries

Mapping Manifest Destiny: Chicago and the American West examines the role of maps in envisioning the American West — documenting its terrain, fixing its boundaries, exploiting its natural resources, and developing its land. The exhibition, featuring more than 60 historic maps and views from the 16th through the 20th centuries, explores the range of motivations for creating, distributing, and using maps of the American West.

The exhibition begins with a look at maps with overtly political incentives, from European colonial ambitions to American consolidation and nationhood. It continues with maps created specifically to document and educate Americans about the United States and its resources. The exhibition concludes with a section devoted to maps that were ultimately used to lay claim to, exploit, and promote commercial interests throughout the West. Highlights of the exhibition include original maps drawn by George Washington, Lewis and Clark, and John Charles Fremont, along with maps used by railroad tycoons, gold speculators and the early tourists to the region.

During this journey through time, Chicago emerges first as a dot on the map, then a bustling metropolis, and subsequently a major center for the production of American maps. Drawing on the Newberry’s renowned map collections, Mapping Manifest Destiny: Chicago and the American West offers a fresh lens through which to understand the crucial role maps played in the building of a nation.

Curators

• Michael Conzen (The University of Chicago)
• Diane Dillon (Newberry Library)

Admission

Admission to exhibits at the Newberry Library is free and open to the public.

Related Public Programs

• Guided group tours are available for groups of 15-25 people and last approximately one hour. Group tours are offered November 14, 2007 through February 15, 2008; advance booking is required.

• Making Mapping Manifest Destiny: The Curator's Challenge
  Saturday, November 3, 2007 at 10:00 am
  SPEAKER: Michael Conzen (The University of Chicago)

• Mapping American Frontiers, from Waldseemüller to Rand McNally
  Saturday, November 3, 2007 at 1:30 pm
  PANEL: Seymour Schwartz (Rochester, New York); James Akerman, Robert Karrow, and Diane Dillon (Newberry Library)

• Picturing Common Ground: Mapmakers and Artists in the Nineteeth-Century American West
  Saturday, February 16, 1:30 pm
  SPEAKER: Diane Dillon (Newberry Library)
  

Resources

Exhibit Object List (PDF)


Education kit. Images and suggested activites for classroom instruction related to the exhibit.


Exhibit catalog — Mapping Manifest Destiny. ISBN 978-0-911028-81-2.
This catalog may be purchased from the A.C. McClurg Bookstore at the Newberry.


The Hermon Dunlap Smith Center for the History of Cartography.  The Center seeks to advance knowledge of the history of cartography, defined as the history of creation, use, and interpretation of maps and the relationship between mapping and other facets of human history.


Map Collections at the Newberry. The Newberry Library holds an estimated 500,000 maps issued separately and in atlases and books; half of these were published before 1900. Most of the great printed atlases, from Ptolemy onwards, are present, often in multiple editions.


Mapping Manifest Destiny: Chicago and the American West is part of Festival of Maps Chicago. Please visit the Festival Web site for additional information about city-wide events.

This exhibition has been made possible by major underwriting from Barry and Mary Ann MacLean,
with additional funding provided by Andrew McNally IV.

Additional support is generously provided by Northern Trust.