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Posted by: Carlyn Osborn
Stretching nearly 2,000 miles from the Pacific Coast to the Gulf of Mexico, the Mexico-U.S. border is the world’s single most crossed international boundary. With over a billion dollars worth of goods moving between the countries every day and 11 million people living within the border region, the history of the Mexico-U.S. boundary line is worth …
Posted in: American History, Borders, Exploration, Hispanic American History
Posted by: Tim St. Onge
The Back Bay neighborhood of Boston is home to some of the city’s most famous landmarks, including Prudential Tower, the Boston Central Library, Trinity Church, and the posh shopping district of Newbury Street. It’s hard to imagine that about 150 years ago, this area was almost completely covered in water. Back Bay was, in fact, …
Posted in: City Histories
Posted by: John Hessler
The Library of Congress’ Geography and Map Division is home to a large collection of Pre-Columbian archaeological artifacts donated by the collector Jay I. Kislak, many of which are on display as part of the Exploring the Early Americas Exhibit in the Thomas Jefferson Building here in Washington, DC. The artifacts that make up the …
Posted in: Big Data and Visualization, Exploring the Early Americas, Kislak Collection
Posted by: Carlyn Osborn
As the 2015 United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP21) began this week, it is important for all of us to study how we are affected by global climate change. According to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), future changes to our Earth include a warmer atmosphere and oceans, more acidic oceans, higher sea levels, and larger …
Posted in: Reference Guides
Posted by: John Hessler
Last week we passed an important milestone in the history of science. November 25th, 2015, marks one hundred years since Albert Einstein delivered his now infamous address to the Prussian Academy of Sciences, during which he laid out the series of equations which lie at the heart of his General Theory of Relativity. This anniversary …
Posted in: Big Data and Visualization, Biography
Posted by: John Hessler
Who are the next generation of cartographers? What draws them to this part science, part artistic expression, part design discipline? Many cartographers of the past and those working today often talk about an early love for maps and how something about their graphic form drew them to the field. Some of the most famous mapmakers, …
Posted in: Biography
Posted by: John Hessler
Recently, the Geography and Map Division has undertaken a large scale project to collect manuscripts, technical information, algorithms, software, and hardware from the earliest days of computer cartography. This project, which is being directed by the author, began as a series of lectures for graduate students that I gave at Johns Hopkins University on the …
Posted in: Biography, Geographic Information Science
Posted by: John Hessler
As one of the curators of the largest map library on the planet, there are times when one comes across a map that just strikes you as unique, not only as piece of cartography, but also as a monument to the obsessions of antiquarians of the past, the present, and the future. Several days ago …
Posted in: Exploration
Posted by: Carlyn Osborn
At the age of 33, James Wilson (1763-1855) moved out of the log cabin he had built by hand, sold all the stock he possessed on his 100 acre farm, and managed to scrape together $130 in rural eighteenth century New Hampshire. And for what purpose? Wilson wanted to purchase all thirteen volumes of the …
Posted in: Biography