Synopses & Reviews
To the attentive user even the simplest map can reveal not only where things are but how people perceive and imagine the spaces they occupy.
Mapping Boston is an exemplar of such creative attentiveness -- bringing the history of one of America's oldest and most beautiful cities alive through the maps that have depicted it over the centuries.The book includes both historical maps of the city and maps showing the gradual emergence of the New England region from the imaginations of explorers to a form that we would recognize today. Each map is accompanied by a full description and by a short essay offering an insight into its context. The topics of these essays by Anne Mackin include people both familiar and unknown, landmarks, and events that were significant in shaping the landscape or life of the city. A highlight of the book is a series of new maps detailing Boston's growth.
The book also contains seven essays that explore the intertwining of maps and history. Urban historian Sam Bass Warner, Jr., starts with a capsule history of Boston. Barbara McCorkle, David Bosse, and David Cobb discuss the making and trading of maps from the sixteenth to the nineteenth century. Historian Nancy S. Seasholes reviews the city's remarkable topographic history as reflected in maps, and planner Alex Krieger explores the relation between maps and the physical reality of the city as experienced by residents and visitors. In an epilogue, novelist James Carroll ponders the place of Boston in contemporary culture and the interior maps we carry of a city.
Review
What a marvelous and immensely welcome book! The collection of maps is surpassing, and to have them so beautifully published in combination with such superb essays is cause for celebration for everyone who loves Boston and loves history. Mapping Boston is a perfect treasure. The MIT Press
Review
The MIT Press
Synopsis
An informative—and beautiful—exploration of the life and history of a city through its maps.
Synopsis
An informative -- and beautiful -- exploration of the life and history of a city through its maps.
To the attentive user even the simplest map can reveal not only where things are but how people perceive and imagine the spaces they occupy. Mapping Boston is an exemplar of such creative attentiveness -- bringing the history of one of America's oldest and most beautiful cities alive through the maps that have depicted it over the centuries.The book includes both historical maps of the city and maps showing the gradual emergence of the New England region from the imaginations of explorers to a form that we would recognize today. Each map is accompanied by a full description and by a short essay offering an insight into its context. The topics of these essays by Anne Mackin include people both familiar and unknown, landmarks, and events that were significant in shaping the landscape or life of the city. A highlight of the book is a series of new maps detailing Boston's growth.
The book also contains seven essays that explore the intertwining of maps and history. Urban historian Sam Bass Warner, Jr., starts with a capsule history of Boston. Barbara McCorkle, David Bosse, and David Cobb discuss the making and trading of maps from the sixteenth to the nineteenth century. Historian Nancy S. Seasholes reviews the city's remarkable topographic history as reflected in maps, and planner Alex Krieger explores the relation between maps and the physical reality of the city as experienced by residents and visitors. In an epilogue, novelist James Carroll ponders the place of Boston in contemporary culture and the interior maps we carry of a city.
About the Author
Winner, 1999, in the category of Excellence in Design and Production, Professional/Scholarly Publishing Annual Awards Competition presented by the Association of American Publishers, Inc.
Winner of the 2001 Philip Johnson Award presented by the Society of Architectural Historians.
Second Prize, 2000, American Association of Museums (AAM) publication competition.
Table of Contents
Introduction : Revealing a city/exploring its maps / Alex Krieger -- A brief history of Boston / Sam Bass Warner, Jr. -- Diagramming the growth of Boston / Nancy S. Seasholes and Amy Turner -- The mapping of New England before 1800 / Barbara McCorkle -- The Boston map trade of the eighteenth century / David Bosse -- Windows to our past : mapping in the nineteenth century and beyond / David Cobb -- The New England plates -- Gaining ground : Boston's topographical development in maps / Nancy S. Seasholes -- Experiencing Boston : encounters with the places on the maps / Alex Krieger -- The Boston plates -- Map of good hope : Boston in the American imagination / James Carroll.