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Boston Public Library Press Release News and Events |
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Boston and Beyond: A Bird’s Eye View of New England
A free public exhibit from the Norman B. Leventhal Map Center
January 3, 2008 A hundred and fifty years ago, New England embarked on the extended growing pains of industrialization, transportation revolution, swelling immigration, and technological innovation that continue to reshape the region. Rural villages expanded into thriving factory towns, seaports turned away from the perils of the deeps to the wooing of pleasure-seeking visitors, the City of Boston filled in its ponds, fens and swamps, and pushed out and built up into a financially robust, sophisticated regional capital, and trains, trolleys and ferries tied the communities ever more tightly together. This energetic urban change and the civic pride that accompanied it were documented by ingenious mapmakers who imagined these towns as though they were soaring above them like balloonists or birds. The Norman B. Leventhal Map Center at the Boston Public Library is now presenting these fascinating Bird’s Eye Views in a six-month, free exhibition at the historic McKim Building in Copley Square. The bird’s eye views of the BPL are one of the world pre-eminent collections and have recently been preserved by Save America’s Treasures, a prestigious federal initiative that rescues and conserves for future generations the essential documents and artifacts of United States’ history. As the high-flying observer looks down as though from 2,500 feet on the mapped area, the town “below” appears in a kind of historical snapshot, revealing factories, homes, parks, churches and cemeteries, and even architectural details. The story that unfolds is of the growing economic vitality and urbanization of Boston and the New England region while America matured into a late 19th century global giant. The Boston area craftsmen who made these elaborate images were the leaders of the bird’s eye view vogue and the exhibit will showcase their diaries, field sketch notes, and manuscript drawings.
Teachers! The Map Center invites middle school and high school teachers to bring their classes for a free guided tour of the exhibit.
Transportation underwriting for classes is available on request.
To book a tour, please call Debra Block, Director of Education, at 617-859-2294 or email her at dblock@bpl.org.
For more than 150 years, the Boston Public Library has pioneered public library service in America with revolutionary ideas and famous firsts. Established in 1848, the BPL was the first publicly supported municipal library in America, the first public library to lend books, the first to have a branch library and the first to have a children’s room. Today, the BPL boasts 27 neighborhood branches, free Internet access, two unique restaurants, an award-winning website www.bpl.org and an on-line store featuring reproductions of the BPL’s priceless photographs and artwork. Each year, the BPL hosts nearly 5000 programs, answers more than one million reference questions and serves millions of people in its National Historic Landmark McKim Building in Copley Square. All of its programs and exhibits are free and open to the public. At the Boston Public Library, books are just the beginning! -30- Prepared by the Boston Public Library's Communications Office. For more information about news, programs and events at the BPL, call 617-859-2212 or send a message to the Communications Office. |
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