Graduate School of Design exhibit features maps from library collections

“Cartographic Grounds: Projecting the Landscape Imaginary” will be on display in the Gund Hall Lobby until December 19.

The exhibit melds data-driven and experiential depictions of the ground though cartography and landscape architectural drawing.

The exhibition features maps from more than 20 Harvard libraries, including the Harvard Map Collection, Frances Loeb Library, Ernst Mayr Library and Widener Library, as well as reproductions of maps from the British Geological Society, Bibliothèque Nationale de France and NASA.

“The idea stemmed from a conversation about how design drawings have lost their precision with regard to the way in which they depict ground surfaces,” said Jill Desimini, exhibit curator and assistant professor of landscape architecture at the GSD. Pieces displayed in the exhibit are organized into four categories determined by subject matter: terrestrial practices, aqueous explorations, subsurface inventions and temporal itineraries.