We regularly mount exhibitions in our gallery, located in the historic McKim Building the Boston Public Library in Copley Square. Exhibitions topics range from collections-centered shows on Boston bird’s eye views and women mapmakers to theme-centered shows on the American Revolution, Boston immigration, and public landscapes. All of our exhibitions feature scholarly research as well as activities for families, children, and educators.
Currently on Exhibit
More or Less in Common: Environment and Justice in the Human Landscape
March 18–December 28, 2022
In More or Less in Common: Environment and Justice in the Human Landscape, we take a look at how questions of social justice and injustice are essential topics to confront when trying to understand the human landscape. These questions must also be at the center of our attention as we challenge ourselves to build better, healthier environments in the future. Through maps as well as photographs, images, and data visualizations, this exhibition encourages you to confront stories about how environmental conditions have sometimes served to worsen inequalities along lines of social division. At the same time, our shared environment offers the possibility to bring people together across differences and the inspiration to forge new kinds of common action.
As the Back Bay neighborhood of Boston was filled to make new land, nineteenth-century Bostonians were forced to consider the natural geographies that connected land and water. The Stony Brook watershed, shown in blue on this 1860s map, crossed multiple then-independent towns, raising questions about what happens when social and ecological boundaries cross each other.