Encountering New Worlds
Conceived of by science librarian Brian Simboli, who worked in collaboration with professor of philosophy Patrick Connolly as a 5x10 session, Encountering New Worlds draws upon the rich collection of atlases in Special Collections. In assembling the original program, Simboli incorporated both celestial and terrestrial works. For the purposes of this exhibit, we are focusing on historical world maps.
The material displayed in the first three cases in the Cafe Gallery has three main themes:
- the second century Ptolemy's influence on mapping in the 16th century, despite the new geographic discoveries that were emerging.
- the unfolding discoveries of new lands by navigators;
- how map-makers experimented with new ways to depict the globe on the flat surface of a map.
The labels for this exhibit draws from Lehigh’s online exhibit “Encountering New Worlds”, assembled by science librarian Brian Simboli, who provided citations and links to additional information.