Osher Map Library & Smith Center for Cartographic Education

09/01/2026

We have loved getting to meet so many new people who are visiting the map library for the first time after seeing this segment!

Have you shared it with a friend who might like to visit?

08/30/2026

Happy to all who celebrate 🦇

This adorable bat illustration from our collections can be found in the 1895-1896 composition notebooks of Gertrude Estella Day. Gertrude Day was born in Jefferson, Lincoln County, Maine, in 1882, and, by 1900, was listed as a teacher in the census. These two composition notebooks contain Day’s notes from her time as a student, as well as early lesson plans for her own Maine students. She tells us that bats are found “in caves, in a hollow tree, under the roofs of houses, and in old buildings.” Still true…..

If you want to learn more about how you can help protect Maine’s bat population, visit our friends at Maine Dept. of Inland Fisheries & Wildlife for more information and action steps!

You can peruse Day’s charming notebooks on our website: https://oshermaps.org/map/52842.0001

08/14/2026

There is only 1 week left to see our Founding Memories: America at 250 gallery exhibition! This show has brought in visitors from nearly every state and has had us all considering how memories shift throughout time.

We'll be open this Saturday (8/15) from 10 AM - 2 PM, so come down and check it out!

08/13/2026

We love hosting mollymaps!

08/12/2026

A rare total solar eclipse is taking place today in Greenland, Iceland, northern Spain, and part of Portugal! But a partial solar eclipse will be visible to millions across Europe, northwestern Africa, and parts of North America, including us here at the Osher Map Library in Portland, Maine.

Check out this 1858 Astronomie Populaire en Tableaux Transparents, or “Popular Astronomy in Transparent Charts,” which contains 12 plates of lithographs on thick card. Each page illustrates astronomical concepts like the solar system, the lunar phases, eclipses, the theory of the seasons, comets and meteorites, and much more. Some pages have hollow sections covered over with colored tissue paper, creating translucent details meant to be shown backlit. You may even recognize some from our chromolithography exhibition a few years ago!

Whether you're traveling to experience totality, stepping outside for a few minutes, or just checking out a library book, stay safe; please don't look at the sun without proper eye protection!


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Parent: Astronomie Populaire en Tableaux Transparents

Collection: Smith Collection

Name: Éclipses

Barcode: 2240

Image Number: 2240.0011

Date Created: 1858

Date Published: 1858

Publisher: Kiessling & Cie

Language: French

Notes: Pl. 8

Permanent URL: https://oshermaps.org/map/2240.0011

08/07/2026

We don’t know about you but we are ready for the weekend and we are ready for August to slooooow down.

So many summer activities, so little time. Have you gone to see any summer theatre yet? This 1935 pictorial map from Stage Magazine depicts summer theatres in New England, up and down the New England coast and the mid-Atlantic. These were the frequent haunts of Broadway stars for decades.


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Name: Stage’s Own Map of the Summer Theatres whereon are located most of summer Broadway’s hundred odd show signs.

Barcode: 54722

Creator: Mullin, Willard

Publisher: Stage Magazine

Publishing Location: New York

Date/Date Range Published: Jul 1935

Region Depicted: New England

Dimensions: 32 x 47 cm on sheet 35 x 49 cm

Brief Description: Pictorial map of New England highlighting the summer theatre scene. Includes illustrations of some historical figures in comical form such as Rip Van Winkle, William Penn as “Billy Penn”. Inset map shows Washington, D.C., Pennsylvania, Virginia, Delaware and West Virginia.

Accession Number: OML-1935-151

Permanent URL: https://oshermaps.org/map/54722.0001

08/02/2026

Where are your favorite Maine summer vacation destinations? This 1934 map of Mt. Desert Island focuses on acclimating visitors to Acadia National Park, highlighting Carriage Roads, Hiking paths, and popular outdoor activities. For just 50 cents, visitors could use the map while on vacation, and then take it home as a souvenir from “the land of remembered vacations” (one of Maine’s advertising taglines in the 1920s and 1930s).


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Name: Map of Mount Desert Island Maine showing Acadia National Park

Barcode: 54239

Creator: Higgins, Howe D.

Publishing Location: Southwest Harbor, Maine

Brief Description: Howe D. Higgins depicts the island in its entirety and used U.S. Coast and Geodetic Survey charts to create the base map adding vignettes such as hikers, canoeists, vessels and a decorative cartouche featuring a deer. Dark lines trace the the island’s road network and dashed lines indicate the carriage roads. Mount Desert Island was considered a a popular vacation destination with attractive natural landscapes. By the 1860’s tourists began coming to the island. In the 1890’s American business and social elites had built summer homes on the island’s most desirable lands. The Rockefeller family would purchase most of the island donating it to the Federal government as a public recreational area and it became known as Acadia National Park.

Date/Date Range Published: 1934

Language: English

Dimensions: 73 x 59 cm

Permanent URL: https://oshermaps.org/map/54239.0001

08/01/2026

Congrats to all of the runners, walkers, wheelchair racers, organizers and volunteers at today’s TD Beach to Beacon 10K race in Cape Elizabeth today, and a special kudos to all of the University of Southern Maine faculty, staff, students and alums who competed.

This illustrated map of Cape Elizabeth (including the beach and the beacon) from our collections was published in 1973. The borders of the map include histories of the many shipwrecks in the at times treacherous waters off the coast.



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Name: Cape Elizabeth, Incorporated 1765

Barcode: 57611

Creator: Turner, E. C.

Notes: “Cape Elizabeth is rough and rocky, fully exposed to the fury of the vast Atlantic Ocean. Especially the ‘Nor” and Southeasters, which send vast rollers onto the headlands. The many coves are exposed by treacherous reefs which exgtend far out into the ocean.... A great hazard for ships.”

Brief Description: Illustrated map.

Publisher: Leadbetter, J. W.

Date/Date Range Produced: 1973

Language: English

Region Depicted: Cape Elizabeth, Maine

Dimensions: 40.5 x 50.5 on sheet: 45.5 x 55.5 cm

Accession Number: OML-1973-199

Donor: J. Moore

Permanent URL: https://oshermaps.org/map/57611.0001

07/25/2026

With the the Society for Imaging Science and Technology Conference in Boston this week, the Osher Map Library was happy to host some cultural heritage imaging colleagues from around the country on Friday for a special post conference field trip and behind the scenes tour of our facilities with our Digital Imaging Lab team (David, Adinah, and Nora, also pictured here). We were delighted to welcome colleagues from the University of Texas Austin, NEDCC and the Rochester Institute of Technology for a day of collaborative knowledge sharing. Come back any time!

07/10/2026

Want to know more about the history of color map printing?

We are pleased to now offer a digital exhibition and downloadable catalogue for our past exhibition "Pageant of Spectacles," curated by Matthew Edney, Professor of Geography and the Osher Professor in the History of Cartography. This exhibition focuses on chromolithography in the USA and includes an essay on the history of maps and color.

Learn More Here: https://exhibits.oshermaps.org/pageant-of-spectacles/

If you like full-color maps, and want to know about the history of color map printing, you should check out Project Director Matthew Edney's online exhibition on chromolithography in the USA, with an essay on the history of maps and color.

The exhibition is at https://exhibits.oshermaps.org/pageant-of-spectacles/

You can also download a PDF of the full content! Here's a detail of the title page of Levi Yaggy's chromolithographic "Geographical Portfolio" (1887).