A city plan is a window into the city’s culture and lifestyle.

Unfortunately, most historic, urban maps we find today were made by European and American cartographers primarily to depict cities designed or strongly influenced by the Western European tradition. This unfortunately leaves many peoples, cities, and cultures cartographically underrepresented. That, however, is not to say that maps done by other cultures, of other places aren’t out there.

This From the Vault Map Collections Showing will spotlight plans of global, pre-industrial cities that were founded by non-European cultures.

This free showing will be hosted Friday, August 22 in the Leventhal Map & Education Center with a staff member available to answer questions. This collections showing event was specially curated by our Visitor Services & Exhibition Assistant, Artem Sereda. Drop in any time between 2:00PM - 4:00PM. No reservation is required.

From The Vault

The Leventhal Map & 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 Leventhal Center staff. These drop-in sessions do not include a formal presentation, though Leventhal Center staff will be available to interpret objects, chat, and answer questions.