1919 was a year of heightened map production around the world. Among the many maps produced immediately after the First World War were new maps drawn to preserve the peace. These maps reflect the instability and the experimentation of a world attempting to solve the problems that had led to four years of devastating war. Some cartographers worked to preserve a lasting peace with their maps, while others redrew national boundaries, seeking what some maps had taught them was rightfully theirs. While much of this cartographic work took place at the peace negotiations in Paris in 1919, its global legacy reverberates today, a century later.
The Newberry Library’s Hermon Dunlap Smith Center for the History of Cartography invites you to its exploration of this topic on November 7-9, 2019. The 20th Nebenzahl Lectures are being organized by Dr. Peter Nekola (Luther College). He has invited eight other scholars from around the world to discuss the ramifications of 1919 for the history of cartography in the twentieth century and the early twenty-first.
Please note that blocks of hotel rooms have not been reserved for out-of-town guests. A list of recommended hotels near the library may be found at: https://www.newberry.org/accommodations-and-dining.
Preliminary Schedule:
Thursday, November 7
7:30pm - Opening remarks
7:45pm - Mirela Altic, University of Zagreb
Drafting the State of the South Slavs: New Cartography for a New Order
Friday, November 8
9 am- Steven Seegel, University of Northern Colorado
Skins, Lines, Borders: Geographic Expertise and the Mapping of Eastern Europe in 1919
10:15am - Jason Hansen, Furman University
Cartographies of Victimhood: Envisioning the Nation after the Paris Peace Treaties of 1919-1920
11:30am - Daniel Foliard, University of Paris, Nanterre
“More than one Palestine”: Nationalist Cartographies, the Middle East and the 1919 Peace Negotiations in Paris
2:30pm - Penny Sinanoglou, Wake Forest University
Lines of Control, Lines of Contestation: Cartography and British Imperial Politics in the Middle East Mandates, 1919-1948
3:45pm - Lindsay Frederick Braun, University of Oregon
Mapping a New African Empire: Britain and Tanganyika Between the Wars
Saturday, November 9
9 am- Peter Nekola, Luther College
Science and Reasoning in the Delegation Maps of 1919: Humans’ Last and Greatest Attempts to Naturalize Borders, Nations, and Territories
10:15am- Hon Tze-ki, City University of Hong Kong
From Connectivity to Geobody: The 1919 Moment and China’s Role in the World
11:30am- William Rankin, Yale University
Mapping, Science, and War
On Thursday, November 7, registrants will also have the opportunity to enjoy a day trip to the American Geographical Society Collection at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. Seats will be filled on a first-come first-served basis. There will be a fee for participation in this tour to cover the cost of transportation and lunch.