We’re obviously pretty fond of digital maps and technology in general. However, sometimes you just have to marvel at the beautiful maps and images created by cartographers hundreds of years ago. With brushes, compasses, sextants, and not a computer in sight, they surveyed and recreated the physical world as they knew it.

Many of these historic maps have been photographed or digitized and are available online. In terms of maps of Philadelphia where Azavea is based, both the Hexamer and Locher maps on PhillyHistory.org and the maps available at the Greater Philadelphia GeoHistory Network give great insight into how the city has changed and developed.

There are some maps though that just have to be seen in person. This Spring, a number of museums and libraries are displaying beautiful historic maps as part of various exhibitions. If you have a chance, it just might be worth tearing yourself away from the computer for awhile to marvel at the talents of cartographers throughout the centuries.

The Matteo Ricci World Map (1602) at the Library of Congress: On exhibit for the first time in North America, this 5.5 feet tall by 12.5 feet wide map displays China at the center of the world and was also the first Chinese map to show the Americas. More information is available in the New York Times review of the exhibition.

Mapping New York’s Shoreline, 1609-2009 at the New York Public Library: An exhibition of maps, atlases, prints, and other items tells the story of New York’s waterways and harbors over the course of four centuries.

Mapping Discoveries in the Heavens and Controversies on Earth from the Harvard Map Collection: Maps are not always of land. This exhibition explores Galileo’s celestial observations and their impact on the world. 

Envisioning the World currently on view at the Princeton University Library: A traveling exhibition of rare world maps from the collection of Henry Wendt, a Princeton alumnus.