And quiet flows the Don at Pusey

The Harvard Map Collection presents its fall exhibition, “From the Amazon to the Volga: The Cartographic Representation of Rivers,” which opened Wednesday (Sept. 24). For centuries, cartographers have wrestled with the difficulties of depicting rivers, and in the process they have devised many ingenious ways of answering the challenge — from streambed profiles to bird’s-eye views, ranging in format from portfolio atlases to strip maps, accordion books, and scrolls. This exhibit examines how mapmakers from the 15th century to the early 20th century sought to measure, track, and frame some of the major rivers of the world, including the Tigris and Euphrates, Amazon, Don, Danube, Nile, Congo, Rhine, Volga, and Mississippi. The exhibition runs through Jan. 30, 2009, in Map Gallery Hall, Pusey Library.