In the last issue of the Independent, some images were shared from the media kit provided by the Field Museum Public Relations Office showing a number of the pieces from the current exhibit called Maps: Finding Our Place in the World. Those images, however elegant and marvelous they are, pale in comparison to what is actually on display beyond that institution’s columned portico. What lies within, in the words of the Bard’s Prospero, is “such stuff as dreams are made on.” But a Prospero wandering this exhibit would find that very tangible guides remain behind, left by many practical and artistic contributors over the millennia.
The exhibit at the Field Museum is just a part of a larger Festival of Maps occurring at multiple locations throughout Chicagoland. Other locations include the Art Institute of Chicago, Brookfield Zoo, Chicago Cultural Center, Lincoln Park Zoo, Museum of Contemporary Art, Museum of Science and Industry, and the Newberry Library. Some events are free while others have a reasonable admission fee. Festivalofmaps.com has a full list of participants.
The exhibit at the Field Museum is divided into seven galleries. The first, entitled Finding Our Way, looks at the practical nature of maps. It includes a huge map of the London Underground (subway system), a Photo-Auto Guide from the early 1900s with turn-by-turn pictures taken from a car hood-mounted camera that might be the forerunner to today’s GPS unit, and a thirteenth-century map designed to guide pilgrims to the Holy Land.
Other galleries feature maps by such luminaries as Ptolemy, Mercator, Hernan Cortes, Captian Cook, Captain John Smith and Thomas Jefferson. There’s a whole gallery dedicated to Mapping Imaginary Worlds such as L. Frank Baum’s Oz, Jonathan Swift’s Lilliput and J.R.R. Tolkien’s Middle Earth. There is a map of the ancient Babylonian city of Nippur and Italian Renaissance maps. There is so much to see and experience that no words can do the full exhibit justice. If a picture paints a thousand words, surely a map must be worth a million.
Maps: Finding Our Place in the World runs at the Field Museum through Jan. 27. For more information, contact the Field Museum general information line at 312-922-9410, visit online at www.fieldmuseum.org or purchase tickets by calling 866-343-5303.