“Pearls of the Antilles: Maps of Caribbean Islands” is the theme for the Eighth Biennial Virginia Garrett Lectures on the History of Cartography and the accompanying exhibit at UT Arlington Library’s Special Collections. The lectures will take place, beginning at 9:30am on Friday, October 5, 2012 at the Central Library (Sixth Floor) of the University of Texas at Arlington.

The focus of the event is maps, and how they reflect and shaped the histories of Caribbean islands. Speakers will include David Buisseret (Newberry Library); John Garrigus, (UT Arlington); Max Edelson (University of Virginia); Daniel Hopkins (University of Missouri at Kansas City); S. Blair Hedges (Pennsylvania State University).

Accompanying the lectures is an exhibit at UT Arlington Library’s Special Collections titled “Pearls of the Antilles: Printed Maps of Caribbean Islands,” featuring over seventy maps and prints, drawn solely from the collections at UT Arlington. The exhibit will run from August 2012…