The Chicago Map Society Presents: Mapping Outside the Lines

Title: Mapping Outside the Lines

Abstract: David Weimer will discuss the creation and purpose of the Newberry’s exhibition, Mapping Outside the Lines (9 October 2025 – 14 February 2026). This exhibition explores how mapmakers in Europe and the Americas have used the lines on maps to communicate spatial information. By focusing on different types of lines, like those that show graticules, altitude, networks, and other features, this exhibition elucidates how mapmakers use lines to create the rules that make maps legible. In turn, the exhibition expands out from these examples to include renegade mapmakers and artists who have bent, twisted, and broken those rules to push maps to their limits.

Speaker Bio: David Weimer is the Robert A. Holland Curator of Maps and the Director of the Hermon Dunlap Smith Center for the History of Cartography at the Newberry Library. Prior to coming to the Newberry, David was a librarian in Harvard University’s Map Collection.

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All Chicago Map Society meetings are open to the public and all are welcome. To help defray expenses, non-members are asked for a small donation at the door.