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ABOUT THIS PROGRAM

The Harry Ransom Center is home to one of only three intact copies of the first state of Joan Blaeu’s nearly 7' x 10’ (2m x 3m) wall map of the world, a map that stands as one of early modern Europe’s greatest cartographic achievements. At its size and price, copies of Blaeu's map would have been destined almost exclusively for the walls of the powerful and affluent, but we know almost nothing about the particular history of the Center’s copy before 1969, when it appeared in a catalog from the New York bookseller, H.P. Kraus. The map itself, however, does carry with it some clues about its past, ones that the Center's conservation and exhibitions teams took pains to preserve as they painstakingly worked to stabilize and frame it for display in our galleries. This presentation will detail how the Center approached analyzing and treating the map as well as what they’ve learned about it—and one new mystery that has emerged.