Mapping Historic Skies

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Dating from the fifteenth through twentieth centuries, the Adler Planetarium's celestial cartography collection focuses on European astronomy but also includes significant examples from China and the Islamic world. The intellectual content of these maps reaches well beyond the history of astronomy. On the most fundamental level, they show relationships between objects in space. In selecting groupings of stars and other information for their maps, celestial cartographers also reveal contemporary awareness of the universe around them, as well as prior beliefs assimilated into that awareness. With a perspective embedded in time and place, the artist or astronomer understands and portrays the universe based on the surrounding society and culture. Available technologies, dominant religious sensibilities, prevailing philosophical thoughts, and popular artistic styles all influence celestial maps. From antiquity to the present day, maps of the heavens reflect terrestrial culture.