By Sarah Martin, Information Specialist, Y.T. & Louise Lee Lum Library, Appraisal Institute

Members of SLA Chicago Chapter attended the new exhibit of maps at the Newberry Library on Thursday, November 15. The exhibit, entitled “Mapping Manifest Destiny: Chicago and the American West,” contained maps by George Washington, Lewis and Clark and John Charles Fremont. 

The Newberry’s display of maps in a coherent timeline gave a wonderful picture of the settlement of the United States.  From the first explorers and trappers, to the colonization by France and England, to the Manifest Destiny of expansion across to the Pacific, the brilliance of the display turned these “musty maps” into documents of record well worth preserving. 

The Newberry Library as well as the Field Museum also delved into the different classifications of maps--not just what the maps represented, but also how they were used.  For instance, some of the Western expansion maps definitely portrayed the lands as smaller and less fearsome to promote tourism and in other cases the maps were used to justify the taking of lands from the American Indians. 

The highlights for this librarian were seeing Southern California as an island, the evolution of Chicago’s name and purpose, and frontier posters chronicling what you should bring to the Gold Rush.

The SLA group, led by the intrepid Karen Krupka, then retired to the Water Tower Place where we enjoyed a lovely offering of food at the Foodlife eatery.  

It is worth mentioning that this exhibit is part of the Festival of Maps [1], a large number of exhibits of maps including the main exhibit at the Field Museum and other locals all over town.

I have also seen the offering at the Field Museum and it was fascinating, well worth seeing, plus a number of locals offer free or discounted exhibits as well.

Contact Sarah Martin at samartin@appraisalinstitute.org [2].