Talks All Mapped Out in Lexington This Spring

The Scottish Rite Museum and Library in Lexington, also known as the National Heritage Museum, or formerly the Museum of Our National Heritage, has some intriguing talks mapped out for the spring.

In particular, this Saturday there will be a talk on Col. Percy’s personal map of New England and what it might tell us about the British army officer corps’ knowledge of the region.

Saturday, 15 March, 12:00 noon
Journeys and Discoveries: The Stories Maps Tell
Polly Kienle, Public Programs Coordinator
In anticipation of the lecture at 2:00 P.M., this gallery talk will focus on Revolutionary War-era maps from the museum’s collection, on display in “Journeys and Discoveries: The Stories Maps Tell.” While London mapmakers published views of the American colonies and towns where British soldiers and colonists fought for territory, other maps of North America reflected power struggles between European nations as well as Native American nations’ lessening influence on the continent.

Saturday, 15 March, 2:00 P.M.
General Hugh, Earl Percy’s Use of the Map of New England during the American Revolution
Matthew Edney, Osher Professor, History of Cartography, University of Southern Maine
How did British officers know the landscape of New England at the start of the Revolution, whether strategically, tactically, or logistically? This public lecture considers the evidence provided by the annotations made on Hugh, Earl Percy’s personal copy of the standard map of New England, together with the variety of maps available in the period, to outline the distinct kinds of geographical knowledge possessed by the British military in Boston in 1774-1775.

Saturday, 12 April, 2:00 P.M.
Organizing Wonder: Using Maps in Family History Research
Melinda Kashuba, Shasta College
From sixteenth-century maps depicting the location of Irish clans to maps of DNA test results showing ancient migration patterns, family historians use maps in many ways to tell the story of their ancestries. After exploring the range of maps and software available, Melinda Kashuba will offer an informal discussion with interested audience members.

Saturday, 7 June, 2:00 P.M.
Map and Chart Publishing in Boston in the Eighteenth Century
David Bosse, Librarian and Curator of Maps, Historic Deerfield
For much of the eighteenth century, map publishing in America was a financially precarious undertaking. In Boston, individuals from many walks of life ventured into commercial map-making, with divergent results. This lecture explores the work of several Boston mapmakers during this period of ad-hoc publishing.

All these talks are free and open to the public.