The Annual Miami International Map Fair Takes Place This Weekend at HistoryMiami

This annual Miami International Map Fair showcases antique maps, rare books, panoramas and atlases from around the world! The fair takes place Saturday, Feb. 4-Sunday, Feb. 5, from 10am-5pm, at HistoryMiami, located at 101 W. Flagler Street. 

Peruse and purchase antique maps from some of the finest map dealers in the world. Learn about maps through a series of lectures by experts in the field and enjoy special events held throughout the weekend. For a complete list of events during the Map Fair, please see the official website.

Admission is $5 for HistoryMiami members and $15 for non-members. Tickets may be purchased at the door. Admission includes entrance to the international dealer’s marketplace, access to expert opinions on your own map(s), and the opportunity to win door prizes. Proceeds from Map Fair go toward maintaining and improving HistoryMiami exhibitions, educational programming and community outreach programs.

For more information regarding HistoryMiami’s Miami International Map Fair, call 305-375-1492, e-mail mapfair@historymiami.org, or visit the official website.

The Fitzgerald & Kanner Trust for Historic Maps was established to endow the Miami International Map Fair, to support the growth of HistoryMiami's map collection, and to foster an appreciation of historic maps through exhibitions, publications and educational programming.

In 1990 an anonymous donor established the Joseph H. Fitzgerald Trust for Historic Maps as a part of the museum's endowment. The Trust is named after  Joseph H. Fitzgerald in honor of his long service to HistoryMiami and avid interest in maps. The Trust has grown through donations of generous friends and map enthusiasts. For more information about the Trust please call 305-375-1615 or e-mail  development@historymiami.org.

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18th International Map Fair Features First Maps of Florida and Cuba

The Miami International Map Fair returns to HistoryMiami, Saturday, February 5 and Sunday, February 6, 2011 from 10 am to 5 pm. Among the many wonderful maps on display will be the earliest printed maps of Florida and Cuba.

A rare 1566 Ferrando Bertelli map featuring Cuba and Hispaniola combined in the same map, a rarity at the time, will be available for purchase at the Fair for $9,500. An Arrowsmith Map of the United States and Florida will also be on sale for $28,500. This 1819 edition of the map provides numerous important updates, including being the first to provide an inset map of Florida. The addition of Florida likely reflects the fact that in 1819 East Florida officially became a possession of the United States as a result of the Adams-Onis Treaty.  In all likelihood this map is the first one to show Florida as a part of the United States.

"Eighteen years ago we decided to put on a Map Fair, and wondered if anybody would come," says founder and chairman, Dr. Joseph H. Fitzgerald. "Not only did they come but 18 years later it has become one of the most prestigious map events in the world. We are honored that people come to support our event year after year."

Miami is one of only three cities in the world - along with London and Paris -  to host a map fair and is the only one in the western hemisphere to do so.The first weekend in February, the fair provides the serious collector or casual buyer a weekend of browsing and buying antique maps and rare books and special topical lectures. Visitors are also encouraged to bring in maps from their own collections for expert opinions.

This year's lecturers will include New York Times bestselling author of Longitude, Dava Sobel; Ph.D., Associate Professor of Geography at Middlebury College Anne K. Knowles on "Envisioning History with GIS" and James Ackerman, Ph.D., Director of the Hermon Dunlap Smith Center for the History of Cartography at the Newberry Library who will discuss "In the Rearview Mirror: An Appreciation of Twentieth-Century Roadmaps."

Daily admission to the Map Fair is $10 for adults; $5 for children 6-12; and free for HistoryMiami members and children under 6. Fair hours are 10 am to 5 pm at the Miami-Dade Cultural Plaza located at 101 West Flagler Street in downtown Miami. Free parking is available at the Cultural Center Parking Garage, 50 NW 2 Avenue.

For more information or to register for the 18th Annual Miami International Map Fair, please call 305-375-1617 or email mapfair@historymiami.org.