Date: September 20, 1984
Title: Use of Government Surveys for the Description of Pre-Settlement Vegetation of Chicago
Speaker: Phil Hanson, Education Department, Field Museum of Natural History
Location: Fellows’ Lounge, The Newberry Library
While researching the historical background of the plant ecology of certain Chicago prairies, Phil Hanson utilized the original General Land Office surveys to present in detail the native plant life of Chicago. His lecture will be illustrated by slides.
Date: October 27, 1984
Title: Field trip to see Gerald Fitzgerald’s Map Collection
Speaker: Gerald Fitzgerald, Host
Location: Palatine, Ill.
Gerald F. Fitzgerald, a founding member of the Chicago Map Society, will open his collection to us in a Saturday morning reception. A discerning collector with eclectic tastes, Mr. Fitzgerald has assembled a large and fascinating group of maps from the sixteenth century to a map of the moon signed by the Apollo astronauts. His particular interests are maps of North America, the Great Lakes region, Illinois, the Arctic, and Celestial maps, and besides the maps he can boast some superb atlases and a fine collection of books on the Arctic.
Date: November 13, 1984
Title: Historical Atlas and Chronology of County Boundaries, 1788–1980
Speaker: John H. Long, Project Supervisor, United States Historical County Boundary Data File Project, The Newberry Library
Location: Fellows’ Lounge, The Newberry Library
Mr. Long will discuss the genesis of the computerized boundary file on which the atlas is based and describe its coverage and uses.
A Newberry Library Colloquium hosted by the Hermon Dunlap Smith Center.
Date: November 15, 1984
Title: Terra Incognita: Mapping the Calumet
Speaker: Paul Petraitis, Chicago Historical Society
Location: Fellows’ Lounge, The Newberry Library
Paul Petraitis, of the Chicago Historical Society, has spent most of his life in Chicago’s far south side, never far from the course of the vital, if unlovely, Calumet River. His talk, illustrated by maps and other photographs, will cover two hundred years of mapping and two hundred square miles of territory with particular reference to the little-known portage routes of the region.
Date: December 6, 1984
Title: Gardens of Delight: Maps and Travel Accounts of Illinois and the Great Lakes from the Collection of Hermon Dunlap Smith
Speaker: Dinner meeting, tour of exhibition
Location: Reception in the Exhibition Gallery, The Newberry Library
The Newberry Library cordially invites the members of the Chicago Map Society to view its exhibition, Gardens of Delight: Maps and Travel Accounts of Illinois and the Great Lakes from the Collection of Hermon Dunlap Smith. This exhibition of forty maps and forty books was mounted to dedicate the gallery given by the Field Foundation of Illinois and named in honor of Hermon D. Smith, who did so much to further the role of cartography at the Newberry. The exhibition, in a newly-remodeled room, in new cases and new wall-frames, gives the Library its first chance to display its treasures in a proper setting. Several wall maps are exhibited which it was never possible to show before except in sections. See the enclosed brochure for more information on the exhibition.
A dinner will follow our viewing in the first-floor conference room.
Date: January 31, 1985
Title: The Discovery and Mapping of the Great Lakes
Speaker: Rowland L. Sylvester, Founder, Lake Michigan Maritime Museum, South Haven, Mich.
Location: Fellows’ Lounge, The Newberry Library
The founder of the Lake Michigan Maritime Museum in South Haven, Michigan, Rowlie Sylvester has an abiding interest in local history and in cartography. He has tried to capitalize on the visual appeal of old maps through exhibits, television programs, and the slide/tape presentation which will be shown at this meeting. Using two projectors, music, and narration, the show documents the early explorers of the Great Lake.
Co-Sponsored by the Chicago Maritime Society.
Date: March 21, 1985
Title: The History of the Tools and Techniques of Printmaking
Speaker: Allen Gavin, Department of Art, Chicago State University
Location: Fellows’ Lounge, The Newberry Library
Professor Gavin, of the Art Department at CSU, will lead us on a guided tour of the printmaker’s workshop. All the techniques used to print old maps (woodcuts, engravings, and lithographs) will be discussed and illustrated by slides and actual examples.
Date: April 18, 1985
Title: Design and Production of a “World Newsmap of the Week” for Schools
Speaker: Gordon Carlson, Curriculum Innovations, Inc., Highland Park, Ill.
Location: Fellows’ Lounge, The Newberry Library
Newsmaps have been around since the early seventeenth century, when Messrs. Visscher, Blaeu, et al published broadsides showing the latest battles in the revolt of the Netherlands. During WWII, many Americans were exposed to newsmaps prepared by the government to help us follow the war effort. Curriculum Innovations, of Highland Park, does its best to combat geographic illiteracy by publishing a weekly newsmap for schools. Mr. Carlson will discuss some of the special problems and challenges facing a cartographer who attempts to address this audience.
Date: May 16, 1985
Title: Celebration of the 200th Anniversary of the Ordinance of 1785: The Origins of the Federal Land Survey System—A Bicentennial View
Speaker: Richard Corbett, Commonwealth Edison, Co.
Location: Fellows’ Lounge, The Newberry Library
The rectangular regularity of settlement, agricultural lands, and roads, which is such a marked feature of much of the United States, had its immediate cause in the Northwest Ordinance of 1785, which established the Township and Range System of survey. On the 200th anniversary of the Ordinance, the Society will celebrate the event with special refreshments and an illustrated talk by member Dick Corbett, a Registered Land Surveyor.