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U of M to give public rare glimpse of the 500-year-old map that was first to use the word America
MINNEAPOLIS / ST. PAUL ( 9/27/2007 ) -- The University of Minnesota Libraries will give the public a rare glimpse of one of the Libraries' most valuable items on Monday, Oct. 1, when it begins to display a 500-year-old map that was the first to include the word America. The university's James Ford Bell Library is presenting the special exhibit, "The Map that Named America, 1507-2007," to commemorate the 500th anniversary of the Waldseemueller gores globe, a map created in 1507 and part of the collection of the university's James Ford Bell Library. "The map is extraordinary because it is the first to include the word 'America,"' assigned to land that we now call South America, and the first to depict these newly-discovered lands as separate from Asia," said Marguerite Ragnow, curator of the U of M's James Ford Bell Library. Minnesota industrialist James Ford Bell purchased the map in 1954 for an undisclosed amount of money. Three other copies of the map still exist, but the Bell Library's copy is the only one that remains in the Americas -- the others are in European collections. One of those other copies was auctioned at Christie's in London in 2005 for approximately $1 million. The Bell's copy is considered more valuable than the copy that was sold at Christie's, because it is in its original condition. The U of M's map is a single sheet of paper 9.5 x 15 inches printed with 12 connected globe-like segments. The map is designed to be cut out and pasted onto a sphere to form a globe map of the world. In 1507, German cartographer Martin Waldseemueller created two maps, printed from engraved woodblocks, depicting newly-discovered lands in the western Atlantic. These were drawn from sailors' charts and other documents, including the popular accounts of explorer Amerigo Vespucci. One of Waldseemueller's maps was the globe gores (the one now owned by the Bell Library); the other was a larger 12-panel wall map, a copy of which is owned by the U.S. Library of Congress. The Library of Congress purchased the wall map for approximately $10 million in 2003. "The 500th anniversary of the Waldseemueller gores globe raises important questions," Ragnow said. "For example, how has the meaning and connotation of the word 'America' changed in the 500 years since the creation of the map? What does 'America' mean today? The exhibit's emphasis on the map that named America brings the relevance of these issues into the 21st century." The map is the centerpiece of the exhibit which presents an array of documents related to Atlantic exploration including a first edition of the Cosmographiae Introductio (the book printed to explain the map), and 16th-century navigation manuals. "The Map that Named America: 1507-2007" exhibit is free and open to the public from Oct. 1 to Dec. 31. Gallery hours are 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Monday through Wednesday and Friday and from 8:30 a.m. to 8 p.m. Thursday. The James Ford Bell Library is inside Wilson Library at 309 19th Ave. S., Minneapolis. For a parking map go to: www1.umn.edu/twincities/maps/OMWL/ ---------- |
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