Maps & America: the Arthur Holzheimer Lecture Series
Held in the spring of each year in the AGSL on the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee campus, the Maps & America Lecture Series was inaugurated by the noted cartographic historian, Brian Harley, in 1990. Since its inception, the lecture series has been generously sponsored by Arthur and Janet Holzheimer of the Chicago area. Over the years, the series has featured many of the leading figures in the field of map history and provided a multifaceted survey of this rapidly developing field.
2024 Maps & America Lecture
On April 11, 2024, the Arthur Holzheimer Maps & America Lecture Series presented “Newsroom Cartography,” given by Tim Wallace, Senior Editor for Geography at The New York Times.
Tim Wallace helps coordinate geospatial efforts across the newsroom in his role as Senior Editor for Geography at The New York Times. He creates visual stories that illustrate the geographic dimensions of current events. Tim has a Ph.D. in geography from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. For over 150 years, The New York Times has been using maps to help readers understand what is happening around the world. Cartographic techniques are integral to the way The Times reports on weather, war, climate, politics, and more. Using maps from the AGSL collections as touchstones, this talk explores how The New York Times strengthens its news coverage with maps. This was the 34th “Maps & America” lecture, supported by an endowment created by Arthur and Janet Holzheimer.
Visit the companion exhibit to the lecture here: Maps in the News.
Holzheimer Maps and America Lectures 1990-2023
May 4, 2023
Karen Lewis, Chair of Undergraduate Studies in Architecture and Associate Professor of Architecture at The Ohio State University
Unquiet Journeys: Mapping the Underground Railroad
April 28, 2022
Dr. Katherine Parker, Research Officer at Barry Lawrence Ruderman Rare Maps Inc
Mapping Difference and Distance: Indigenous presence on European maps of southern Patagonia in the early modern period
April 8, 2021
Tom Patterson, US National Park Service Cartographer (Ret.), Mapping Grand Canyon National Park
Visit the companion exhibit to the lecture here: Mapping the Grand Canyon.
April 25, 2019
Chet Van Duzer, Independent Researcher, Depicting and Concealing Unknown Regions at the Northern Limits of North America on Early Maps
Lauren Beck, Professor of Hispanic Studies, Mount Allison University Indigenous and European Visualizations of the North West Passage.
April 26, 2018
M. Carme Montaner García, Institut Cartogràfic i Geològic de Catalunya “Franciscan Cartography of the Peruvian Amazon in the Second Half of the Eighteenth Century.”
April 13, 2017
Christopher W. Lane, Owner, Philadelphia Print Shop West “Cartographic Myths of the American West”
April 28, 2016
Mirela Altić, Institute of Social Sciences, Zagreb, Croatia “Transatlantic Cultural Exchange: Jesuit Cartography of the Americas”
April 23, 2015
Steve Hornsby, University of Maine “Picturing the World: American Pictorial Maps, 1920-1970.″
April 10, 2014
Michel Oudijk, and Sebastián van Doesburg, both of the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México “The Ixtepeji Scroll: Mapping the Cultural Landscape of a Zapotec Noble Lineage.”
April 18, 2013
Chas Langelan, Washington DC Land Surveyor (retired), and Officer of Surveyors Historical Society, “Andrew Ellicott: Early America’s Preeminent Surveyor.”
April 24, 2012
Barnet Schecter, Author & Independent Historian, New York
“Mapping a Life, Mapping a Nation: George Washington and his Vision of America”
April 5, 2011
Susan Schulten, Dept. of History, University of Denver
“Cartographic innovation in the Civil War era”
April 27, 2010
Jim Akerman, Director, Smith Center for the History of Cartography, Newberry Library
“Making Connections: Road Maps and the Nation”
April 28, 2009
John H. Schroeder, Professor, Department of History, UWM
“Yankee Surveyors in Imperial Waters: The Perry Expedition to Japan.”
May 30, 2008
Alastair Pearson, University of Portsmouth (UK) and
Michael Heffernan, University of Nottingham (UK)
“Ordering the South: The Mapping of Hispanic America by the American Geographical Society”
April 25, 2007
John Cloud, NOAA Historian/Geographer
“And the charts themselves may become the best future historical authority: Cartography and the Coast Survey, America’s oldest scientific agency”
March 8, 2006
Joel Morrison, Professor Emeritus, Ohio State University, past president of the International Cartographic Association
“Mapping the American Landscape”
April 27, 2005
Earl B. McElfresh, cartographer and Civil War author and map historian
“A Hard Road to Travel: Maps and Mapping of the American Civil War”
March 30, 2004
David Rumsey, president of Cartography Associates, San Francisco and director of Luna Imaging, Los Angeles.
“New Uses for Old Maps: How the Internet and GIS are Changing the Face of Historical Cartography”
April 30, 2003
John R. Hébert, Chief of the Geography and Map Division, Library of Congress
“Charting Louisiana: 18th Century French Mapping of the Mississippi Valley, or How the Louisiana Territory Came to be Defined”
April 24, 2002
Ralph Ehrenberg, Library of Congress, Retired
“American Aeronautical Charting, With Special Reference to Charles Lindbergh”
May 18, 2001 – The American Geographical Society Sesquicentennial Symposium
- Jerome E. Dobson, Oak Ridge National Laboratory and Director of Exploration, American Geographical Society. “AGS Exploration: A Century on the Frontiers”
- Christopher Baruth, Curator, American Geographical Society Collection. “The AGS Cartographic Collections”
- Miklos Pinther, United Nations, retired. “The History of Cartography at the American Geographical Society”
- James Thomas, Programs Coordinator, American Geographical Society. “The Archives of the American Geographical Society”
- Geoffrey Martin, Distinguished Professor Emeritus, Southern Connecticut State University. “The Inquiry, the Paris Peace Conference and the AGS”
- Mary Lynne Bird, Executive Director, American Geographic Society. “AGS: Continuity and Change”
- John Noble Wilford, Senior science correspondent, New York Times and AGS Councilor. “Maps and their Makers: A Sense of Where We Are”
April 26, 2000
Richard W. Stephenson, Library of Congress, Retired
“City of Magnificent Distances: Designing and Mapping the Nation’s Capital”
April 7, 1999
Gary W. North, U.S. Geological Survey
“The U.S. Geological Survey: Continuing to Take a New Look at an Old Planet”
April 23, 1998
David Buisseret, Professor of History, University of Texas at Arlington
“French Mapping of Wisconsin and the Old Northwest”
April 16, 1997
Norman J. W. Thrower, Professor of Geography, UCLA
“How the West was Mapped”
April 23, 1996
Alice T. M. Rechlin, The Geographer, National Geographic Society
“What’s in a Name?: The Vocabulary of the American Map”
April 5, 1995
Mark Monmonier, Professor of Geography, Syracuse University
“Cartographies of Danger: Hazard-zone Mapping in the United State”
April 13, 1994
Alexei V. Postnikov, Chief, Department of the History of Geology and Geography, Institute of the History of Natural Sciences and Technology, Russian Academy of Sciences
“The Mapping of Russian America”
April 30, 1993
Alan K. Henrickson, Director, The Fletcher Roundtable on a New World Order, The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, Tufts University
“Maps and American Foreign Policy: Towards the North American Free Trade Agreement and Beyond”
April 3, 1992 – The J.B. Harley Memorial Lecture
Elizabeth H. Boone, Director of Pre-Columbian Studies, Dumbarton Oaks
“Mapping the Aztec World”
April 2, 1991
Michael P. Conzen, Department of History, The University of Chicago
“Prospects of Plenty: County Atlases and Nineteenth-Century American Materialism”
April 26, 1990
Dr. Helen Wallis, O.B.E.
“Columbus and the Early Maps of America: Islands and Mainland in the Ocean Sea”