The Map of the City of St. Louis by Rene Paul Esquire was first issued in 1842 and later updated in 1844. Rene Paul, who was the city surveyor, compiled this map using information available to him at the time.The map was published by Twichel & Cook and engraved by T. Twichel at the office of J.T. Hammond in St. Louis, Missouri. It features detailed engravings, including three vignettes of buildings and a steamboat on the Mississippi River. The map is color-coded by ward and includes a table of population statistics and a key to important buildings.This historical map is known for its exquisite coloring and detailed representation of St. Louis during that period. It is considered a valuable piece of cartographic history and is part of the David Rumsey Historical Map Collection.

Using conventional cartographic techniques and orientation, the artist views Cambridge from the south southwest as if he hovers above Brighton looking north across the Charles River. His presentation includes all of Cambridge, encompassing its several neighborhoods and their varied functions. The original village center focusing on Harvard Square and Harvard University is positioned just right of center, while Cambridgeport with its numerous commercial activities clustered around Central Square is placed left of center. Meanwhile, East Cambridge with its industrial activities is located in the upper right hand corner of the drawing. An extensive directory lists 132 references. Thirty-two of these, representing the city hall, the county court house, and the churches, are numbered and located on the view. However, the remaining entries, recording an extensive number of commercial and industrial establishments, are not keyed to the view although their addresses are indicated. Interestingly, this view was not a comprehensive listing of industrial activity. The several brick yards prominently displayed on the left side of the view are not enumerated, nor is the city's largest employer, the New England Glass Company, which is distinctly depicted in the upper right hand corner north of the Boston and Lowell Railroad. During its short existence in the 1870s, the Franklin View Company produced only two urban views this one and an 1873 view of Gloucester. Their style was noticeably different from the typical bird's eye view. They combined elements of a conventional map with the currently popular bird's eye view, in that the street pattern was replicated with little distortion, while the buildings were shown in three dimensions and the horizon displayed a high oblique perspective.

The map prepared by the local committee for the use of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. It includes key to buildings in and about College Yard and a list of Harvard buildings more than a century old, and other places of interest in Cambridge.

Surveyed by the civil engineer John G. Hales, it is considered to be one of the most accurate maps of the 19th century expansion era, the first to show a comprehensive list of buildings. Different shadings were used to indicate the material from which a building was constructed. It shows property lines, data that, when coupled with those about buildings, provide invaluable information about Federal-period Boston. The map covers the Shawmut peninsula and includes an inset of Boston Neck.

Captain John Bonner's map of Boston, created before the city's coastline was altered by landfill, combines plan and perspective views to depict settlement patterns and the city's thriving maritime economy. The shipping in the harbor is meticulously illustrated, while the topography is simplified. The map also highlights areas where Native American artifacts were discovered, showcasing the history of the land before European settlement in 1630. This map includes a list of buildings with the year of their construction, a list of fires in the city from 1653 to 1711 and a list of occurrences of smallpox.

Considered to be one of the best visual records of pre-Revolutionary Boston, this map is an updated version of the map first published by John Bonner in 1722. After his death in 1726, his partner William Price assumed sole ownership of the Boston Plan, to which he added a decorative cartouche, and numerous streets in the south and west and along Boston Neck. Like the original one from 1722, this map includes a list of buildings with the year of their construction, a list of fires in the city from 1653 to 1711 and a list of occurrences of smallpox.

The Centennial Map of Concord, created by H.W. Blaisdell in 1875, commemorates the 100th anniversary of the Battle of Concord, a pivotal event in the American Revolutionary War. This detailed map distinguishes between buildings and structures that existed in 1775 and those present in 1875. It also shows the route of the centennial procession held on April 19, 1875.The map provides valuable historical insights by naming landowners and highlighting the locations of significant structures from both periods. Relief is shown by hachures, adding a topographical element to the map.

Shows city wards and lines, some buildings, and radial distances from City Hall. Relief shown by contours.From: The Cambridge directory, 1895. Oriented with north toward the upper left. On verso: advertisements.

Mapping controls our perception and impacts the way we understand our environment. In the past, the map itself was a precious object. Used by property owners to define boundaries, by the military to fight wars, by explorers for navigation, and by municipalities to fight fires - the embodied an extraordinary investment of time and resources that gave the owner the power to shape the world. With technological advances like GIS, Google Maps and smart phone technology, the relationship between the map and its user changed dramatically. No longer a precious object, new maps are generated constantly and instantaneously. Access has been expanded from several hundred to millions. Even the ownership and creation of maps has shifted toward the user with the advent of customization and consumer input. This new technology marks a fundamental shift not only in the map as object but also in its power to influence perception. Map-making is an exercise in choice. The vast information available on a given site’s historical and cultural make-up presents a unique and challenging task: how to capture the essence of a place and communicate that intangible quality to an audience. By definition, the process necessitates a curatorial and selective approach. Layering, comparison and mash-up are effective tools, juxtaposing historical data with current cultural trends, but even complex data is limited to what the mapmaker's can feasibly incorporate. Before the internet, a map was an object frozen in time by the printing process, the mapmaker's choices fixed permanently in place. Today, instantaneous access to a mobile database — the app — has fundamentally altered this problem. Choice, while still a curatorial exercise, is no longer static: it is a dialogue between the city, the user and the mapmaker. Many cities and organizations are embracing this wealth of digital technology to make their environments more accessible. Downloadable maps are readily available to the casual tourist, cell phone tours have proliferated in the historical districts, and QR codes are plastered on the side of buildings and products, all in an attempt to engage both the visitor and the resident in the built environment. cultureNOW has collapsed these tools into one seamless program, allowing the user to navigate a city with text, photos and audio at their fingertips. This exhibition views Boston through the lens of cultureNOW’s Museum Without Walls. Merging historical data with the power of smartphone technology, the gallery highlights Boston's development, while also capturing the city in the moment. It allows the user to meet some of the artists, architects, historians, planners and visionaries who have shaped Boston, and in so doing, understand the shape of Boston itself. Like the Museum Without Walls, this map is a work in progress. In conjunction with the cultureNOW app, it is part of the continuous process of defining a city. As cultureNOW expands its database and deepens its understanding of Boston, this map will change and adapt. This is a snapshot of BostonNOW. Curated by:Abby Suckle FAIAIngrid BengtsonSayli KorgaonkarEduardo M. Llinás-MeseguerJosh SchecterDavid GiglioJuliet Gensemer Anna Heineman Advisory Council:Franziska Amacher AIALawrence A. Chan FAIAKarin GoodfellowMark FavermannDavid Fixler FAIAAlex Krieger FAIAPeter Kuttner FAIAJohn PowellScott Simpson FAIAJane Weinzapfel FAIAPeter VanderwarkerEric White Collaborating Organizations:American Institute of Architects, NY ChapterBoston by FootBoston Art CommissionBoston Harbor AssocationBoston Harbor Island AllianceBoston Preservation AllianceBoston Society of ArchitectsCambridge Art CouncilFenway AllianceHarvard University Graduate School of DesignLightBostonMIT Public ArtMIT SENSEable City Lab With Special Thanks To:Alex Anmahian  •   Ann Beha FAIA  •   B.K. Boley AIA  •   Fred Brink  •   Lance Brown FAIA  •   Robert Campbell FAIA  •   Harry Cobb FAIA  •   Andrew Cohen  •   Arthur Cohen  •   Preston Scott Cohen  •   Lee Cott  •   Katelyn Cotter  •   Emily Curran  •   Howard Elkus FAIA  •   Terri Evans  •   Tory Fair  •   Ann Feineman  •   Robert Fleming  •   Beth Galston  •   Urs Gauchat  •   Dimitri Gerakaris  •   Shauna Gillies Smith  •   Jane Goldman  •   Roger Goldstein FAIA  •   Stephanie Greenfield  •   Graham Gund FAIA  •   Frances Gretes  •   Jason Hart  •   Mags Harries  •   Brian Healy  •   Lajos Heder  •   Thomas M. Hotaling AIA  •   Eric Höweler AIA  •   Sarah Hutt  •   Steven Imrich AIA  •   Chris Johns  •   Joyce Koslow  •   Kathy Kottaridis  •   Yugon Kim  •   Rick Kobus FAIA  •   Michelle Laboy AIA  •   Christina Lanzl  •   David Lee FAIA  •   Andrea Leers FAIA  •   Mara Lippman  •   Helen Lissack  •   Tim Love AIA  •   David Manfredi FAIA  •   Todd McKie  •   William Menking  •   Ross Miller  •   Mark Pasnik AIA  •   John Powell  •   Michael Kubo  •   Keith Morgan  •   Charles Redmon FAIA  •   Robert Roche  •   Charles Rose FAIA  •   Tamara Roy AIA  •   Warren Schwartz FAIA  •   Nancy Schön  •   Nancy Seasholes  •   Nancy Selvage  •   Douglass Shand-Tucci  •   Jorge Silvetti  •   Josiah Stevenson  •   Maryann Thompson FAIA  •   Peter Vanderwaker  •   Clara Wainwright  •   Carole Wedge FAIA  •   Jason Weeks  •   Heidi Whitman  •   Elise Woodward