Dr Catherine Delano-Smith Awarded with the Bartholomew Globe

We were delighted to award Dr Catherine Delano-Smith with our Bartholomew Globe award on Monday 24th March.

Dr Delano-Smith with RSGS President Professor Iain Stewart and the Bartholomew Globe

Dr Delano-Smith is a leading geographer and historian of cartography and has done a great deal over the course of more than thirty years to deepen and widen research in the history of cartography, within the UK and across the world, becoming a lynchpin of the cartography community.

She has been one of the foremost activists behind the resurgence of the critical history of cartography, not only in her own works which have been many and influential, but also in her organisation of meetings through The International Society for the History of the Map, in her support of a bespoke and well-respected lecture series and, vitally, in her role as the editor of Imago Mundi, the world’s leading journal for the history of cartography.

Shakespeare's Scotland: 25th September

To coincide with Perth Theatre’s production of Macbeth, on the evening of Wednesday 25 September, the Royal Scottish Geographical Society will be putting on an informal display from its extensive collections of these splendid early maps of Scotland, together with others of the same period, and drawing particular attention to those geographical localities named by Shakespeare in his play.

Margaret Wilkes, one of the joint authors of the recently-published, much-acclaimed ‘Scotland: Mapping the Nation’ and Convener of RSGS’s Collections & Information Committee, will be present to guide visitors through this special display and to point out items of interest about the maps.  She will be accompanied by Tony Simpson, a member of RSGS’s Collections Team, who has produced a sequence of detailed Powerpoint images focusing on the places which have particular association with Shakespeare’s Macbeth: Forres, Darnaway, Cawdor, Inverness, Glamis, Macduff’s Castle by East Wemyss, Birnam and of course Dunsinane.

This special evening will run from 17.30 – 18.30hrs and take place at the Society’s Headquarters, Lord John Murray’s House, 15 - 19 North Port. Perth.

Tickets are £5. Places are limited. Please book by contacting 01738 455050 or enquiries@rsgs.org

New Book Maps the History of Le Tour de France

With the 100th edition of Le Tour de France coming to a close on Sunday 21st with Britain's Chris Froome in first place, one book charts the history of the cycling race through maps.

Mapping Le Tour charts the course of every race route in cycling’s most prestigious event, including a special section on this year’s 100th Tour de France.

With a map of each edition of the Tour de France, along with photographs, text on the history of the race, and lists of the stages, winners and key statistics, Mapping Le Tour is essential reading for any cycling fan.

Each Tour de France race map is accompanied by statistics, including:

• Race and stage distances • Highest point • Number of starters and finishers • Average speed • Jersey winners

Twenty of Le Tour’s iconic locations – many of which have featured in the Etape du Tour – are put under the spotlight, and an extended section on the 2013 race is included, with detailed maps and statistics on each of this year’s stages.

Taking the title by more than four minutes, Froome linked arms with his team-mates as he crossed the line in Paris. It is Britain's second successive victory in the race - Froome's Team Sky colleague Sir Bradley Wiggins became the first Briton to win it a year ago.   

Collections Corner - Tales from the Collections Team

Our collections are still emerging from endless cardboard cartons, large white elephant-like containers and from map chests, all previously hidden away in enforced off-site storage. This storage was imposed on us when we moved our Headquarters in 2008 from Glasgow to Perth and then during the time our new accommodation in the Fair Maid’s House was being made ready for us.

Each week some, if not all, of our enthusiastic 10-strong Collections Team gathers for the day and exciting things suddenly resurface.  Watch this space to see what emerges over the next weeks and months! 

ONE HUNDRED YEARS ON 

In November a 1925 map of Arctic Lands, published in America by the National Geographic Society emerged from the depths of our ‘Arctic’ map drawer.  One of our keen-eyed Team was examining this and spotted in the right-hand corner a tiny line of print. This revealed that on that particular spot the world’s largest passenger ship - the Titanic - on its maiden voyage, sank on 15 April 1912.

One hundred years and 7 months later, our RSGS Team stopped work to look.  Here, shown lying to the south of the Newfoundland coast – at the small scale of map used by the cartographer it looked very close to the coast, though in fact was some 600km off - was where so many lost their lives.

One tiny line on a map, yet a poignant reminder of a geographical location where something happened which shocked the world, and continues to do so.

 

A Section of the National Geographical Society's Arctic Map.

 

A close up of the marking  "Titanic Sank".

The Society has extensive book, journal, map, and photographic collections which are available to members. These collections are continually updated, and RSGS welcomes donations of relevant material.  Please send any enquiries about the collection to collections@rsgs.org and we'll get back to you as soon as possible (please note that the Collections Team is voluntary and meets once a week).

For more information about the Collections, the Enquiry Service and Access see http://www.rsgs.org/collections/access.html