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This program will be held in-person at the Newberry and livestreamed on Zoom. The online version of this event will be live captioned. Please register below.What is the value of firsthand experience with library materials? How are Indigenous histories embedded in the physical properties of objects? What roles do both the scholar and the institution play in studying these materials?
Art historian Barbara Mundy has dedicated much of her career to studying one renowned map in the Newberry’s collection, the first known map of the great Aztec city of Tenochtitlán. The map captures the city just before its fall in 1521 to forces commanded by the Spanish conquistador Hernan Cortés. Scholars flock to the Newberry from around the world to examine this rare colored edition of the map, published in 1524.
Barbara Mundy and Newberry research center directors Lia Markey and David Weimer will explore the significance of this extraordinary object from diverse vantage points, including Indigenous history, the history of Mexico, the history of cartography, and art history. In the process, the discussion will also engage with Dr. Mundy’s career as an art historian and the Newberry’s role as custodian.
The David L. Wagner Distinguished Fellowship and Lectureship for Humanistic Inquiry is funded by David L. Wagner and Renie B. Adams.
Speakers
Barbara Mundy is an art historian best known for her work on the history of cartography, urban history, and the history of the book. Her research focuses primarily on Mexico and New Spain and the interactions between Indigenous peoples, settler colonists, and their environments across the colonial period. Her upcoming book, "Mexico-Tenochtitlan: Dynamism at the Center of the World," looks anew at the reasons for the city’s rapid consolidation and enduring status as an imperial capital.
Lia Markey is the Director of the Newberry's Center for Renaissance Studies, where she is responsible for conferences, symposia, workshops, seminars, and digital humanities projects devoted to medieval and early modern studies. Her research examines cross-cultural exchange between Italy and the Americas in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, collecting history, and early modern prints and drawings.
David Weimer is Newberry Curator of Maps and Director of the Hermon Dunlap Smith Center for the History of Cartography. He has devoted his professional and scholarly work to guiding people into the history of maps and highlighting their interdisciplinary potential. In 2020, he co-curated an exhibition on the tactile reading of texts that earned him the Biennial Disability History Association’s Public Disability History Award.
Cost and Registration
This program is free and open to all. Advance registration required.
Registration opens April 1.
Learn more and register: https://www.newberry.org/calendar/cortes-map
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Event Venue & Nearby Stays
60 W Walton St, Chicago, IL, United States, Illinois 60610
Tickets
