‘Maps as Mirrors of Mentality’: An
Interview with Peter Barber.
On
12 Thursday April, I had a wonderful opportunity to converse with Peter Barber,
Head of Map Collections, British Library, London. The central focus of our
discussion had to do with the disposition of ‘truth’ in relation to maps as a
representation of ‘reality’. The writer/editor
of such books as ‘Tales from the Maps Room’, ‘The Map Book’, and ‘Magnificent
Maps’ (which was written in support of the ‘Magnificent Maps’ exhibition in
2012), Barber argues that maps mirror the mentality of those that make them--of the politics, propaganda and aesthetic sensibilities of the context from which and
for which, maps are created. It was
a fascinating conversation. Recently, Peter Barber contributed to the BBC
4 broadcast discussion of Drake’s Circumnavigation Medal, as part of “Shakespeare’s
Restless World’ exhibition preparation. For more about these topics, please
visit:
and
