Map of the Moon, from North American Rockw
The Map House It has been collecting and selling cartographic material for over a century to collectors, aviators, explorers and even the Royal Family.
In addition, its exhibitions attract professionals and amateurs from all over the world and are very interesting: old maps, illustrations, propaganda, atlases, books…
His last exhibition The Mapping of the Moon: 1669-1969 , leave Earth behind to land on our satellite and investigate no less than 300 years of lunar and celestial cartography, since the first astronomers of the 17th century.
The exhibition can be visited until August 21 at The Map House (54 Beauchamp Place, London).
USAF Lunar Wall Mosaic (1963)
THE MAP HOUSE: AN ENTIRE CARTOGRAGIC INSTITUTION
Founded by Alfred Sifton and Francis Praed in 1907 , The Map House is London's oldest map dealer.
They have supplied maps of Antarctica to Ernest Shackleton , from the Far East to Winston Churchill and from the Western Front to Edward VIII as well as important parts to the British Library and the Library of Congress , among many other renowned institutions and collections.
Tabula Selenographica by Johann Baptist Homann
ASTRONOMICAL OBJECTS FROM THE 17TH TO 20TH CENTURIES
The exhibition includes a wide variety of astronomical objects that are a magnificent example of humanity's fascination with the firmament.
Maps, globes, light boxes, star charts, and 3D models from the 1660s onwards show the innate human curiosity for what lies beyond.
Among many other pieces, it stands out Tycho Brahe's map of the solar system , with the sun and moon in orbit around the earth, showing an extraordinary attempt to combine 17th century astronomical observations with the previously accepted classical model.
In addition, The Mapping of the Moon collects observations of the moon in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries by astronomers such as Athanasius Kircher and Jean-Dominique Cassini , as well as 19th century educational charts showing the constellations and phases of the moon, a magnificent rare brass model of the solar system dated 1872 and an early 20th century blue and gold celestial globe illustrated with the zodiac.
Tycho Brahe's 1660 map shows Earth as the center of the universe
LUNAR MEMORIES OF THE 20TH CENTURY
In the middle of the 20th century, specifically in 1957, there was the launch of the Russian satellite Sputnik I . The first spaceflight mission , manned by cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin, would be produced in 1961.
The space race between Russia and the United States had begun, having as an audience people from all over the Earth.
Observatories and institutions helped produce detailed moon maps, tracking charts and photographs and during the Cold War, the publication of lunar maps was a very important propaganda tool to promote the space race.
In the exhibition we can see the Lunar Wall mosaic (1963) of the United States Air Force , an astonishingly detailed map made from thousands of photographs carefully stitched together to form what many consider to be the most beautiful map of the moon to date.
We can also see maps made by NASA and material signed by astronauts Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin, Alan Bean and Jim Lovell.
Among these, a 1969 'exclusive use' map marking the historic landing site of Apollo 11 on the Sea of Tranquility signed by Buzz Aldrin and a map of the moon by Philip showing the six landing sites of the Apollo program signed by Neil Armstrong.
Falk Verlag relief map of the Moon (1968)
Nor can we ignore the illustrations, like map pictorial map of the moon with five possible landing sites marked, produced by aerospace manufacturer North American Rockwell
The exhibition will also present a collection of miniature porcelain globes of the Moon created by contemporary artist Loraine Rutt from The Little Globe Co.
The artist Matthew Day Jackson , for his part, has developed a Formica surface that subtly reproduces the lunar surface and the Italian firm Driade , has reinterpreted the design of some of its classic chairs to be used on the moon.
The exhibition can be visited until August 21, 2019 at The Map House.
The Conquest of Space (1969)