BOSTON – When some of the first maps were printed in the late 15th century, they were simple diagrams of three continents and one giant ocean.
Over the next several centuries, more continents were added as European explorers traveled to the Americas, circumnavigated the southern tip of Africa and reached southern and eastern parts of Asia. Technological and scientific gains meant more thorough drawings that incorporated information about the earth’s interior and ocean floor.
The changes in maps today often mean redrawing borders after conflicts and experimenting with different ways to show the information, such as by population density or industry.
A new exhibit at the Boston Public Library shows the evolution of world maps from the late 1400s to today. “Journeys of the Imagination” features 47 world maps, atlases and globes demonstrating the changing, and sometimes controversial, perception of the world through the centuries.
The exhibit, which runs through August, is designed to explore how maps are used both as social and as historical documents, organizers say.
The four basic map elements – projection, orientation, scale and symbols – are explained, and the exhibit also examines the biases of cartographers as they express their worldviews.
“Historical maps are not only geographic records of the world at a particular time,” said Roni Pick, director of the Norman B. Leventhal Map Center at the library. “They are also documents that have a story to tell, both about how and why the map was created, and what the map has to say about a particular culture’s worldview.”
One map, called “What’s Up? South,” shows an upside-down depiction of the world, where Australia, Africa and Brazil are on the top of the page. It’s part of a section of the exhibit challenging perceptions of the world.
Most European and western cartographers have traditionally designated the top of the paper to represent the North, though that orientation is not universal. Many early maps created in the medieval Christian-Jewish tradition have the East at the top. Maps drawn in the Islamic tradition or by people living in the Southern Hemisphere sometimes have the South at the top.
The exhibit includes globes, books and framed maps. There are also maps drawn by Boston schoolchildren. One child’s map looks like a drawing of her neighborhood, highlighting the streets where her aunt, uncle and grandparents had homes.
The professional maps included the eye-catching design popular in the 16th and 17th centuries that neatly separates the Eastern and Western hemispheres. The style reinforced the concept of Old and New Worlds, incorporating artistic details in the margins.
“It’s really interesting to see the changes in what people knew about what the world looked like,” said Sean Monahan, 49, of Boston, who works at the library and was visiting the exhibit during a break.
Monahan said computers are used so often today that it’s easy to forget about “old school” maps that had both artistic and geographic uses.
“We have a globe in our house, but certainly the kids rush to the computer first,” he said. “It’s nice to see the changes right in front of you like this.”
“Journeys of the Imagination” will be on view through Aug. 18 and will not travel elsewhere.
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