About the events
The Oxford Seminars in Cartography have been taking place since 1993, with interested cartographers meeting regularly for a programme of lectures and field trips exploring all facets of mapping and cartography.
Programme for 2023–24
Map Readings – Copyright and cartography: history, law and the circulation of geographical knowledge
Isabella Alexander (University of Technology, Sydney) in conversation with Elizabeth Baigent (School of Geography and the Environment, University of Oxford)
Thursday 9 November 2023
4.30–6pm (GMT)
Online via Zoom
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Past events in this series
‘An illustrated encyclopaedia of this great and varied universe’: Mapping the Crystal Palace at Sydenham, 1854–1936
Madeline Hewitson (Ashmolean Museum, University of Oxford)
Thursday 4 May 2023
4.30–6pm (BST)
Online via Zoom
In this seminar, Madeline Hewitson will examine a number of ground plans of the Crystal Palace at Sydenham, a private enterprise based on the Great Exhibition of 1851 which sat at the intersection of Victorian arts education and the entertainment industry. These ground plans reveal the Palace curators' intricate strategies for educating visitors about the history of empires and the interlinked progress of art and design.
Watch the recording of this talk (YouTube)
Map Readings: ‘Encounters in the New World: Jesuit cartography of the Americas’
Mirela Altić in conversation with Elizabeth Baigent
Mirela Altić (University of Zagreb) and Elizabeth Baigent (School of Geography and the Environment, University of Oxford)
Thursday 23 February 2023
In Encounters in the New World: Jesuit Cartography of Americas (University of Chicago Press, 2022) Mirela Altic analyses maps produced by the Jesuits during their missionary work in the possessions of the Spanish, Portuguese, and French Crowns in both North and South Americas. She traces the Jesuit contribution to mapping and mapmaking from their arrival in the New World into the post-suppression period, placing it in the context of their worldwide undertakings in the fields of science and art.
Watch the recording of this talk (YouTube)
‘Please use the postcode’: navigating the past, present, and future conservation needs of the Hereford Mappa Mundi
Andrew Honey, Bodleian Library, University of Oxford and Conservation Inspector to the Mappa Mundi Trust
Thursday 2 February 2023
4.30–6pm (GMT)
Sir Victor Blank Lecture Theatre, Weston Library and online via Zoom
This talk will examine the conservation needs of the Hereford Mappa Mundi, chart the effects of some of the historic repairs and cleaning campaigns carried out in the past, explain the ingenious methods used to mount the map, and outline future conservation needs, as well as presenting some discoveries from recent conservation inspections.
Watch the recording of this talk (YouTube)
Acknowledgements
The Oxford Seminars in Cartography are supported by:
- The Friends of TOSCA
- The Bodleian Libraries
- The School of Geography and the Environment
- The Charles Close Society
- Lovell Johns Ltd
