News Releases

Exhibition Looks at Historic Pacific Coast Maps and Prints
Quivira Collection Owner to Speak on April 10

March 30, 2007

The Osher Map Library and Smith Center for Cartographic Education at the University of Southern Maine presents a historic map exhibition documenting the exploration of the Pacific Coast from 1544 to 1802. “Mapping the Pacific Coast: From Coronado to Lewis and Clark, the Quivira Collection” will be on display in the Map Library’s gallery through June 2, 2007.  “Mapping the Pacific Coast” leads viewers from early European West Coast expeditions through Thomas Jefferson’s commission of Lewis and Clark’s Corps of Discovery in 1804. An audio tour of selected maps is available for exhibit patrons.

Henry Wendt, owner of the maps in the exhibition, will speak on “History as Art” at 6:30 p.m., Tuesday, April 10, in the University Events Room of USM’s Glickman Family Library, Portland. Admission is free but space is limited. Wendt wrote essays in the companion catalog to the exhibition, which will be on sale during the April 10 event.

This loaned exhibition was organized by the Sonoma County Museum in California and is based on the private collection of Henry and Holly Wendt, who began collecting antique maps in 1962. The historic race to discover the Northwest Passage, sightings of “sea Monsters,” and the fist contact between Native Americans and Europeans are depicted in the exhibit.

USM’s Osher Map Library and Smith Center for Cartographic Education is located at 314 Forest Avenue on the first floor of the Glickman Family Library. The library's mission is to share its rare maps not only with scholars, but also with the general public, including school children. The gallery will be open on Wednesday and Thursday afternoons from 12:30 to 4:30 p.m. and Saturday mornings from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m.  Admission is free and open to the public.  For access inquiries, please call (207) 780-4850 or TTY (207) 780-5646.

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