About this event

Looking to add more maps to your life? Join us for an afternoon of close map looking!

This edition of From The Vault will be curated by Ben Cosgrove, a traveling composer-performer whose “compelling and beautiful” instrumental music explores themes of landscape, place, and environment. Ben’s music will be performed live on Friday, August 11 at 12:30PM as part of the Boston Public Library’s Concerts in the Courtyard Series. We’re thrilled to host Ben following the performance to talk through a handful of objects from our collections that relate to his work and themes of landscape, geography, and place.

Drop in any time between 2:00PM - 4:00PM.

About Ben Cosgrove

Ben Cosgrove is a traveling composer-performer whose “compelling and beautiful” instrumental music explores themes of landscape, place, and environment. He has performed in every U.S. state but Delaware, collaborated with groups ranging from rock bands to research scientists, and held residencies and fellowships with institutions including Acadia National Park, Hawaii Volcanoes National Park, White Mountain National Forest, Harvard University, Middlebury College, the Schmidt Ocean Institute, the New England National Scenic Trail, NASA, and the Sitka Center for Art & Ecology. 

Ben’s fourth studio album, The Trouble With Wilderness, an evocation of different expressions of nature and wildness within the built environment, was released in 2021. It has been the subject of an episode of the NHPR show Outside/In, was deemed one of the spring’s best new releases by WBUR, and has been called “beautiful and fascinating” (The Maine Edge), “instant relief” (The Boston Globe) “deeply impressive” (Independent Clauses) and “immediately evocative and fully arresting… brim[ming] with technical mastery and emotional capital” (Seven Days). In addition to his solo work, Ben has performed and recorded with a long list of artists that includes Ghost of Paul Revere, GoldenOak, Darlingside, Max García Conover, and many more. To learn more, visit his website.

From The Vault

The Leventhal Map and Education Center cares for more than a quarter million cartographic and geographic objects, including maps, atlases, charts, globes, gazetteers, ephemera, research texts, and data sets. With such an extensive collection, it is likely that many of these objects will never be included in exhibitions for public viewing. Our latest series, From The Vault, attempts to remedy that limitation. From The Vault is a biweekly, casual collections showing of objects selected by Map Center staff. These drop-in sessions do not include a formal presentation, though Map Center staff will be available to interpret objects, chat, and answer questions.