Exploring Map Surrounds

Are you interested in using the elements or objects on a map to better understand its meaning? If so, don’t miss Exploring Map Surrounds, a special event hosted by the Geography and Map Division and the Philip Lee Phillips Society (PLPS) at the Library of Congress. This free in-person event, taking place on Thursday, May 8, 2025, from 1:15 PM to 4:15 PM in the iconic Thomas Jefferson Building, will explore the significance of map surrounds through engaging talks and a themed display.

The event is free, but registration is required. Learn more and register to attend here. 

All event activities will take place in the Thomas Jefferson Building (10 First Street SE, Washington, DC).

The event’s schedule includes:

1:15pm in LJ-119: Doors open for a meet & greet
1:45pm – 2:45pm in LJ-119: Chet Van Duzer, “Drawing Identity: Cartographic Self-Portraits in the 20th and 21st Centuries” 
2:45pm – 3:15pm in LJ-113: Themed Map Display by the Geography and Map Division
3:15pm  – 4:15pm in LJ-119: Dr. Juliet Wiersema and Meghan Hill: “Sights on Spice: A Historical and Material Exploration of William Hacke’s A Description of the Sea Coasts … East Indies.”

Meet the Speakers:

Chet Van Duzer

Chet Van Duzer is a historian of cartography and a board member of the Lazarus Project at the University of Rochester, which brings multispectral imaging (a technology for recovering information from damaged manuscripts) to cultural institutions around the world. He has published extensively on medieval and Renaissance maps; his recent books include Henricus Martellus’s World Map at Yale (c. 1491): Multispectral Imaging, Sources, and Influence, published by Springer in 2019, and Martin Waldseemüller’s Carta marina of 1516: Study and Transcription of the Long Legends, published by Springer in 2020. His book Frames that Speak: Cartouches on Early Modern Maps was published by Brill in Open Access in 2023. His current projects are books about self-portraits by cartographers that appear on maps and the historical cartography of the Indian Ocean.

Dr. Juliet Wiersema

Juliet Wiersema specializes in the visual and material culture of the Pre-Hispanic and late Spanish Colonial Andes (Peru and Colombia). She holds a Ph.D. in Art History and Archaeology from the University of Maryland and an M.A. from the Institute of Fine Arts, New York University. Juliet’s new book project, “Ports of Plunder and Islands of Entanglement: William Hacke’s “Pirate Maps” of the Spanish South Sea” critically examines extant copies of Hacke’s hand-painted South Sea Waggoners, focusing attention on the geographic areas between the two “gateways” of entry into the Pacific, the Isthmus of Panama and the Straights of Magellan. Her study aims to recover the overlooked but pivotal role that unfrequented bays, lesser ports, and remote islands held for Spanish navigators and their foreign adversaries.

Meghan Hill

Meghan Hill is a Preservation Science Specialist in the Preservation Research and Testing Division at the Library of Congress. Her background is in fine art, art history, and curatorial studies, having graduated with a BFA from the Maryland Institute College of Art, and she is currently a PhD candidate at the University College Cork, exemplifying the impact of scientific research on humanities-based scholarship. She is an expert in spectral imaging and has worked with numerous cultural heritage institutions around the world to integrate and establish multispectral workflows in their digitization and preservation programs. At the Library she works with conservators, curators, and scholars to apply noninvasive optical technologies to support the preservation of the Library’s extensive and eclectic collections and expand the historical understanding of these materials.

Don’t miss this unique opportunity to explore the fascinating world of map surrounds with experts in the field!

This event is made possible by gifts to the Library of Congress Philip Lee Phillips Map Society.