IMAGINE YOURSELF IN A HOT AIR BALLOON sailing across blue skies over New England. Boston and Beyond, A Bird's Eye View of New England celebrates this exploration from an elevated or bird's eye view perspective, with a display from the Map Center's remarkable collection of 500 urban bird's eye views. These views represent a unique genre of cartographic materials that were compiled and published primarily in North America between 1850-1910.

THE EXHIBIT INCLUDES 48 VIEWS of New England cities and towns, related topographic maps, and examples of early European urban views.

CAPTURING A MOMENT in history, they focus on Boston, its suburbs, and a variety of communities both coastal and interior, extending from Cape Cod to the Connecticut River. These "maps" that served as a form of civic boosterism, proved to be a very democratic medium, documenting large cities, towns, and small villages in equal style and grandeur.

IN THE JUXTAPOSITION of these views with late-19th-century topographic maps, Boston and Beyond demonstrates that these artists often displayed a perspective and bias in selecting a particular (non-north) orientation. A few surviving field sketches and notebooks reveal that the artists did not actually view their subjects from the implied elevated perspective, but rather walked the streets sketching individual buildings. They skillfully prepared composite drawings that depicted each town to its best promotional advantage.

Gallery Tours
of Boston & Beyond, A Bird's Eye View of New England will be held on:

For more information, visit our Virtual Tour of Boston & Beyond