Showcasing research and projects from K-12 students

Teaching both remotely and in-person, the Map Center’s K-12 Education team worked with students and educators at 33 schools during the 2021-22 school year. In this article, Lynn Brown reflects on the past year and the work produced by students as part of these initiatives. We loved helping bring to life student perspectives on Boston’s Green New Deal, Dorchester community landmarks, and urban natural systems.

Read about the projects → 

Author Talk: Alexandra Lange • Aug 4, 4pm ET

Join us to hear architectural historian and design critic Alexandra Lange on the history of public space in America as seen through shopping malls, the subject of her new book Meet Me by the Fountain: An Inside History of the Mall. Lange will be in conversation with Sara Jensen Carr of Northeastern University. The talk is free and open to the public and will be held at the Central Library in Copley Square.

Register for free → 

Boston Transit Trivia · July 28, 6pm ET

Will you be crowned this month’s trivia champ? Join us, along with the Massachusetts Historical Society, for a night of trivia testing your knowledge of Boston’s history with planes, trains, and automobiles. Special thanks to Steven Beaucher for his work and research into Boston’s transit history!

Register for free → 

Touring Denmark through maps

Alan Leventhal—the son of our founder Norman B. Leventhal, a longtime supporter of our work, and the Chair of our Board of Directors from 2020 to 2022—was recently sworn in as the U.S. Ambassador to Denmark. To celebrate Alan’s new role, we took a spin through our collections to find maps and materials that tell the story of Denmark’s history and geography.

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How did the Japanese state see the world 300 years ago?

A richly detailed map of the world from Edo period Japan is the subject of the latest Map Chat from the MacLean Collection. Follow along with the interactive story as Elke Papelitzky discusses what we can learn about how this map (and its changes, censorship, and revisions over time) tracked changes in Japan’s place in the world at that time.

Explore the interactive → 

A welcome to our newest team member

We love summer because it means our offices are a little bit more full with summer interns and new staff—and this year is no exception! We sat down with Kyler, a summer Seevak Fellow from the Boston Latin School, to hear about what he’s excited about in the months ahead at the Map Center.

Read the interview → 

Growing our collections in the history of computer cartography

The Map Center is soliciting collections donations in the area of early computer cartography, including maps, datasets (both physical and born-digital), papers, and other cartographic objects produced between 1960 and 2000. We wrote about two collections that we’ve recently acquired that illustrate this exciting new collecting area for us. (And, if you have an interest in GIS, sign up for our slightly nerdier, GIS-specific newsletter!)

Learn more →