New Atlascope Tours: Boston’s Parks

This fall, the Leventhal Center’s Geohumanities & GIS interns helped expand Atlascope by georeferencing new urban atlas layers using Allmaps, researching geospatial datasets, and writing original Atlascope tours. Thanks to the work of Idana Wilson and Ava Wilcox, we two new Atlascope tours are now available. These tours show how our modern city has grown in tandem with Boston’s one-of-a-kind park system.

Read the new Atlascope tours → 

The David J. Weaver GIS Research Fund

Support the David J. Weaver GIS Research Fund through March 31 and double your impact!

The collections of David J. Weaver, a Massachusetts cartographer and GIS practitioner, have made the Leventhal Center a leading site for studying the history of computer cartography and geographic information systems. The David J. Weaver GIS Research Fund builds upon Weaver’s work and passion, and through the end of our current exhibition Processing Place you have the opportunity to support future discovery in the history of computer cartography. Donations to the Weaver Fund through March 31 will be doubled by an anonymous match!

Support GIS research → 

Spotlight: Brown Seminar on the Historical Geography of the American Revolutionary War Era

Our upcoming exhibition, Terrains of Independence, focuses on the ways in which Boston’s geography informed and influenced the city’s role in the American Revolution. This local geography is part of a larger geographic story in which American Indians, Europeans, and Africans came into contact and conflict on the borderlands of North America.

In this 2021 lecture, scholar Kathleen DuVal takes us on a journey through geographies of the American Revolution that are often omitted from the popular imagination of this time period. DuVal’s presentation is part of the Richard H. Brown Seminar on the Historical Geography of the American Revolutionary Era and features maps that can be found in the ARGO (American Revolutionary Geographies Online) portal.

Watch the talk → 

In Person · March 5, 6:30 pm ET · Radical Atlas of Ferguson, USA

In partnership with our colleagues at the Harvard University Graduate School of Design, Patty Heyda presents a critical visual approach to contemporary cartography through a discussion of her book Radical Atlas of Ferguson, USA. In over one hundred maps, Radical Atlas charts the systemic forces that underpin these conditions of inequality in Ferguson, and the first-ring suburb in America more broadly.

Through an in-depth look at the contradictions undergirding city planning and design, it illuminates how tax incentives, housing codes, streets, nonprofits, philanthropy, and even landscaping often work against the betterment of residents' lives. At its heart lies a key question: Just who are our cities being built for?

This event will be held at the Harvard University Graduate School of Design.

Learn more about the event → 

Newsletter Trivia: The Old Library

Though the Boston Public Library has been in Copley Square for nearly 130 years, for 35 the library was housed at a different location. On what street was the main branch of the Boston Public Library located from 1854 to 1894?

• Beacon Street
• West Street
• Boylston Street
• Tremont Street

The answer to last newsletter’s question about which city on is furthest away from Boston, according to the table on this map, was San Francisco.

Correct answers will be included in a random draw—the winner will receive the next three Map of the Month club postcards for free. Congratulations to our last winner, Jennifer! In order to enter, make sure you follow us on Bluesky, Instagram or Facebook and direct message or email us the answer to the following question. We’ll accept answers until March 3 at 9 am ET.

Message us on Instagram → 

Gift Shop Discount

You can always help support the Leventhal Center by purchasing from our online gift shop (and you’ll get a nice map or catalog in return!). We know January was a long month for many, so for the month of February you can get $10 off any order over $35—no code necessary!

Visit the gift shop →