Mapping Boston - Hardcover

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0262112442 ISBN 13: 9780262112444

Publisher: The MIT Press, 1999

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 this title

About the Author

Alex Krieger is Chairman of the Department of Urban Planning and Design at the Harvard Graduate School of Design and a principal of Chan Krieger & Associates.

David Cobb is Head of the Harvard Map Collection at the Harvard College Library.

Amy Turner is a Boston-based architect.

Reviews

This is not merely a remarkable corpus of period maps--it is a historical atlas of the physical, cultural, and historical evolution of Boston from its beginnings to the present day. Editors Krieger (urban planning and design, Harvard Univ.) and Cobb (head of the Harvard Map Collection) have gathered together a critical mass of map curators, architects, urban historians, and historical archaeologists to explore this history; their informative essays accompany 270 maps, portraits, aerial photographs, and other illustrations. In addition to an excellent index, the book also boasts "A Boston Chronology" that refers to relevant plates. An unusual and handsome resource, this book is highly recommended for all public and academic libraries--particularly those with emphases on cartography, Colonial America, or New England history collections. For a preview of the maps and the publication itself, visit (www.mappingboston.com).
-Edward K. Werner, St. Lucie Cty. Lib. Sys., Ft. Pierce, FL
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Edition details

• Publisher: The MIT Press
• Publication date: 1999
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0262112442
• ISBN 13: 9780262112444
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 272
• Editor: Krieger Alex, Cobb David