Because Map Month is too amazing to fit into just one month, we hang on to it from April 2 - July 22 this year. The 2018 theme for the annual collaboration in May of the Rocky Mountain Map Society and Denver Public Library is Maps and War, showcasing the many ways maps are used to plan, execute and revisit military action.
Map Month explores these in depth, starting with an exhibit up along the outside of the Gates Reading Room on the 5th floor of the Central Library from April 2 - July 22, featuring some amazing maps from the 10th Mountain Division Resource Center. Check out the 3D terrain map using 3D glasses from the WHG Reference Desk, see early artwork from Dr. Seuss in the Army's NewsMap magazine, follow the actions of the military in the days after Wounded Knee in 1890, and trace how the British maneuvered their way into Quebec City during the French and Indian War. Almost all of the materials presented this year are from the collections here at Denver Public Library.
Want to really delve into a subject? The Map Month Lecture Series is held weekly in May in the DPL Conference Center downstairs.
- May 1 – Chris Lane, “Mapping the French and Indian War”
- May 8 – Susan Schulten, “The Civil War through Maps”
- May 15 – Greg Miller, “Cold War Cartography"
- May 22 – David Little, “10th Mountain Division mapping during WWII”
All together, the Western History and Genealogy Dept. has thousands of historic and current maps available to you, with hundreds of them already digitized. If you'd like to find out more about how you can dig into this collection, come to our WHG Programming Series talk on June 12 at 5:30 p.m. in the Gates Conference Room, where Denver map collector Wes Brown will join WHG staff to highlight some of the cartographic treasures from the DPL collection, and talk about their practical applications too.