In this richly illustrated lecture, Libby Bischof, Executive Director of the Osher Map Library and Smith Center for Cartographic Education and Professor of History at the University of Southern Maine, explores the role of 20th century women mapmakers in portraying the Maine Coast on maps made for residents and tourists alike, with an emphasis on pictorial maps made by Ruth Rhoads Lepper, Mildred C. Green, Katherine Dudley, and others. These colorful and highly detailed maps combine deep historical research with artistic and cartographic skill, and we’ll compare examples from Maine with maps produced throughout New England.

Midcoast Maine Map: Ruth Rhoads Lepper, Mid-Coast Maine, 1979. From the Collection of the Osher Map Library and Smith Center for Cartographic Education, Univeristy of Southern Maine.