April 16, 2017 Library Presents Lectures on Maps of World War I

The Library of Congress and the Philip Lee Phillips Map Society will present “Mapping the Great War,” a program on May 25 featuring two lectures on the maps of World War I.

The event will start at noon on Thursday, May 25, in the Mumford Room on the sixth floor of the James Madison Memorial Building, 101 Independence Ave. S.E., Washington, D.C.

The program, free and open to the public, is hosted by the Philip Lee Phillips Map Society, a friends group of the Library’s Geography and Map Division.  Tickets are not needed.

Ryan Moore, a cartographic specialist in the Geography and Map Division, will present the first lecture, “The Maps of World War I.”  Moore will explain how maps illustrate the military and political facets of the war.  He will discuss how aerial photography, scouting and prisoner interviews were used to populate intelligence on maps.  Moore is the author of “The First World War: An Illustrated Essay.”  He has written blogs and articles for the Library of Congress and the Washington Map Society about World War I maps.

Peter Doyle, who is a military historian and terrain analyst from England, will present the second lecture, “Terrain, Maps and Failure at the Dardanelles.”  He will discuss the disastrous Allied campaign at Gallipoli and how planners like Great Britain’s top naval administrator, Winston Churchill, relied upon misleading intelligence gleaned from maps.  The victory of the Ottoman Empire sparked the rise of a brave field officer named Mustafa Kemal, who later became known as Atatürk, the first president of the Turkish republic.

Doyle is the author of “Battle Story: Gallipoli 1915” and has lectured cadets at West Point.  He is a member of the British Commission of Military History and secretary of the Parliamentary All Party War Graves and Battlefield Heritage Group. 

The program will be moderated by Richard Pflederer of the Philip Lee Phillips Society.  He is the vice-chair of the society and the author of books on portolan charts.  He lectures on the history of cartography.

The Philip Lee Phillips Society helps to develop, enhance and promote the collections of the Library’s Geography and Map Division by stimulating interest among map collectors, map producers, geographers, cartographers and historians.  The society encourages financial donations to supplement the Library’s acquisition of rare maps.  The society is named in honor of Philip Lee Phillips (1857-1924), the first superintendent of maps when the Hall of Maps and Charts was established in 1897.  For more information, visit loc.gov/phillips/.

The Library of Congress has the largest and most comprehensive collection of maps and atlases in the world, some 5.4 million cartographic items that date from the 14th century to the present time. The Library's map collections contain coverage for every country and subject and include the works of the most famous mapmakers throughout history—Ptolemy, Waldseemüller, Mercator, Ortelius and Blaeu.  For more information, visit loc.gov/rr/geogmap/.

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