The Arabian Nights - 1899

...7/8/24 (updated 11/29/25)The Arabian Nights Entertainments published by George Newnes is a notable illustrated edition of the classic collection of Middle Eastern folktales known as The Arabian Nights or One Thousand and One Nights. This edition was released in parts around 1899 and featured illustrations by artists such as W. Heath Robinson, Helen Stratton, A.D. McCormick, A.L. Davis, and A.E. Norbury. It includes famous stories like those of Scheherazade, Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves, Sinbad the Sailor, and Aladdin's Magic Lamp, presented in a richly illustrated format meant to captivate readers of all ages.This publication was well regarded for its beautiful and imaginative illustrations that complemented the tales' magical and exotic themes. The format often emphasized the nested storytelling style, where stories flow into one another through characters telling other stories, creating a layered and mesmerizing narrative experience. George Newnes Ltd. was the publisher, known for producing popular illustrated books in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.In summary, George Newnes' Arabian Nights Entertainments is a richly illustrated late 19th-century edition of this classic folklore collection, valued both for its artistry and its engaging presentation of timeless tales.​Source: Perplexity.aiCurated by G. Ly

Wildflowers of America - 1894

7/9/24 (updated 11/25/25)The series "Wild Flowers of America" published by G.H. Buek and Co. in 1894 is a botanical work featuring detailed and accurate illustrations of wildflowers from every state in the American Union. It was issued as a weekly botanical fine art publication and later compiled into a bound book edition. The series contains 288 color illustrations of flowers with corresponding explanatory text, emphasizing botanical accuracy by depicting each flower as it grows naturally, rather than artistic fantasy, to maximize educational value. The publication had contributions from a corps of special artists and botanists and was endorsed by leading artists and university botanists from America and Europe. It was designed to familiarize Americans with their native wildflowers in detail and color.​The book is an oblong quarto with a burgundy cloth cover, decorative lettering and floral designs, and gilt edges, indicating it was a quality production. Its introduction highlights the intention to provide a realistic representation of wildflowers for botanical learning, resisting the common trend of fanciful imagery in botanical commemoratives at the time.​Source: Perplexity.aiCurated by Gabrielle Ly 

Mother Goose Nursery Rhymes

Mother Goose Nursery Rhymes, published by the W. B. Conkey Company, features a large selection of rhymes, poems, and accompanying illustrations. Some of the nursery rhymes are written as sheet music, while others tell moral tales about anthropomorphic animals. It's a delightful, though sometimes dated, set of amusing works for children.Source: https://www.perplexity.ai/search/tell-me-about-mother-goose-wGnYDJXPR6Cgyd4WLGkd6A#1 History of Mother Goose - perplexity >>> Mother Goose is a legendary figure in children’s literature, best known as the supposed author of tales and nursery rhymes beloved for centuries. The name first appeared in French literature in the late 1600s, when Charles Perrault published Contes de ma Mère l’Oye (“Tales of Mother Goose”) in 1697, introducing classics like Cinderella and Sleeping Beauty. Translated into English in 1729, the collection established Mother Goose as a storytelling icon across Europe and beyond.wikipedia+2​The concept, however, may be much older. French legends trace her to “Bertha the Spinner” or “Goose-Foot Bertha,” a queen from the 10th or 11th century famed for captivating children with stories. In America, a popular but apocryphal tale identifies her as a Bostonian woman—either Elizabeth or Mary Goose—whose son-in-law allegedly published her rhymes in the early 1700s.pookpress+2​By the 18th century, the English publisher John Newbery helped cement her association with nursery rhymes through his Mother Goose’s Melody (c. 1765). Whether myth or memory, Mother Goose became a symbol of early childhood literature—an enduring, grandmotherly figure whose songs and stories bridged generations and cultures.poetryfoundation+2​https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mother_Goosehttps://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/mother-goosehttps://www.pookpress.co.uk/project/mother-goose-rhymes-history/https://www.library.illinois.edu/rbx/2018/01/23/who-was-mother-goose/https://bookriot.com/a-brief-history-of-mother-goose/https://rodbenson.com/2021/07/28/who-is-mother-goose/https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CoDDeIdfoMMhttps://kids.britannica.com/students/article/Mother-Goose/275950https://americansongwriter.com/who-was-mother-goose-really-and-what-is-the-meaning-behind-her-story/https://iew.com/support/blog/who-was-mother-goosehttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Histoires_ou_contes_du_temps_pass%C3%A9

Williams Art Community Project - 2025-2026

Welcome to the Williams Art Community Project! Our goal is to energize the Williams arts community by bringing students and alumni together, and through a program of review and mentorship foster a better future for the arts. We hope you’ll join us.See student exhibits (complete as of 1/1/26) here.See recap videos of our Fall alumni-student art chats here and here.Students have created mini-exhibits highlighting their studio or curatorial work, with alumni providing feedback. We have 17 finished Exhibit Stories available here, and final group exhibitions will be hosted in-person in January in Williamstown, online in February, and in-person in Manhattan in April. See latest Google Slide deck.The first exhibit will be January 24, 2026 at 6pm at the ‘62 Center in Williamstown.- Nick Garlid ’25, Tom Paper ’84, Chris Hughes ’28

UN/SEEN - Nick Garlid, Riku Nakano, Coco Rhum, Ellie Iorio, Elsa Martin

The first time Lichtenstein’s Crying Girl was put up for sale, it sold for $10. In 2015 it sold again, this time for $95 million. What makes a work of art worth more than another? Why are some works famous, and some unknown? Our exhibition, UN/SEEN, works to complicate the viewer's understanding of these questions. The exhibition juxtaposes two works of art at a time: one world renowned and one student made. Despite their differences in visibility, the works placed together often deal with some of the same images and the same themes. With time, and with your help, we can move this largely unseen student art solidly into the “seen” category.

Various Art From Various Places

Artwork that leaves an impression on me as I visit various places. by Tom Paper  

Various SFO Art - curated by Tom Paper

Tom Paper’s exhibit of his  encounters with art at the SFO airport. keyword: curatedvisits

Miriam Sweeney Artwork

We love Miriam Sweeney and her art. She loved art as a young woman, but then started a family and so art took a backseat. Re-engaged with art in the past five years or so. Her city map pieces are about her love of place and all the memories she has of places she has been with the people she loves. Her egg shells and bees work is about the fragility of life. Her map and memorabilia pieces are about the lives we lead and all the history packed inside. If I recall correctly, the three lines on some pieces are about her three sons.https://www.mbsweeneyart.com/See @mir_sweeney on Instagram.“Drawing inspiration from city aerial views, my work explores the urban landscape that sit somewhere between order and chaos, structure and collapse, expression and control. Seen from above, its pieces emerge like a puzzle, each with its own personality. I  paint playful, textured curvilinear shapes to capture the city streets, its landmarks, the droning sounds of traffic, the chitter chatter of its cast of characters. I hope to evoke the feeling one gets when flying into a new place for the first time, when we try to take everything in, or reflect on the lasting impressions of authentic connections, special places and their unique stories.”Photoshoot at Baker Street on June 23rd, 2024.Transcript of Recordingkeyword: featuredartistsArtist Statement by Miriam Sweeney - 2025-04-19----------------------Drawing inspiration from city aerial views, my work explores the urban landscape that sits somewhere between order and chaos, structure and collapse, expression and control. Seen from above, its pieces emerged like a puzzle, each with its own personality. I paint playful, textured, curvilinear shapes to capture the city streets, its landmarks, the droning sounds of traffic, the chitter chatter of its cast of characters. I hope to evoke the feeling one gets when flying into a new place for the first time. When we try to take everything in, or reflect on the lasting impressions of authentic connections, special places, and their unique stories. 

French Posters / Jules Cheret - Rich Breiman Collection - Curated by Gabrielle Ly

Jules Cheret Bio...April 2024 - Born in 1836 to a family of artisans, Jules Cheret is known today as the father of modern lithography. His artistic influence began at an early age: his father was a typographer. Due to his family’s poverty, Cheret was apprenticed to a lithographer at the age of 13. He eventually invented color lithography as it exists today, transforming dull prints into veritable rainbows of color.Surprisingly, Cheret’s only formal art training was a single course at the Ecole Nationale de Dessin in Paris. He eventually moved to London, England to study photography and design from 1859 to 1866. His experience and exposure to further lithography techniques inspired him to establish his lithography firm in Paris in 1866. Eugene Rimmel, a perfume manufacturer, funded Cheret’s firm after hiring him to create packaging. Cheret imported the lithography machines from London as they did not exist in France yet.Cheret created his first poster in 1858, commissioned for the operetta Orpheus in the Underworld in London. At first, his posters only used three colors, made from three overlapping prints in the lithographic process. (He also influenced artists such as Henri de Toulous-Lautrec who used the same process of color lithography.)The artist was awarded the Legion of Honor by the French government in 1890 for his contributions to the arts. He designed over a thousand posters for different venues and performances. Cheret passed away at the age of 96 in 1932, having retired to the French Riviera in Nice, France.The term “Cherettes” was coined to describe how Cheret portrayed women in his posters. In contradiction to his time, he depicted women not as puritans or prostitutes but as lively and elegant, free and bold individuals. They appeared as individuals with their own lives and desires, making some call Cheret a pioneer in female liberation.Over time, his style evolved. With “Cherettes” taking the center focus, his compositions became more dynamic and typography-heavy. His posters, influenced by Rococo painters and Japanese woodblock prints, featured simplified backgrounds, flanked by glowing colors and textures. His work elevated lithography to an art form and became popular as it portrayed the gaiety of the time.April 2024 - Born in 1836 to a family of artisans, Jules Cheret is known today as the father of modern lithography. His artistic influence began at an early age: his father was a typographer. Due to his family’s poverty, Cheret was apprenticed to a lithographer at the age of 13. He eventually invented color lithography as it exists today, transforming dull prints into veritable rainbows of color.Surprisingly, Cheret’s only formal art training was a single course at the Ecole Nationale de Dessin in Paris. He eventually moved to London, England to study photography and design from 1859 to 1866. His experience and exposure to further lithography techniques inspired him to establish his lithography firm in Paris in 1866. Eugene Rimmel, a perfume manufacturer, funded Cheret’s firm after hiring him to create packaging. Cheret imported the lithography machines from London as they did not exist in France yet.Cheret created his first poster in 1858, commissioned for the operetta Orpheus in the Underworld in London. At first, his posters only used three colors, made from three overlapping prints in the lithographic process. (He also influenced artists such as Henri de Toulous-Lautrec who used the same process of color lithography.)The artist was awarded the Legion of Honor by the French government in 1890 for his contributions to the arts. He designed over a thousand posters for different venues and performances. Cheret passed away at the age of 96 in 1932, having retired to the French Riviera in Nice, France.The term “Cherettes” was coined to describe how Cheret portrayed women in his posters. In contradiction to his time, he depicted women not as puritans or prostitutes but as lively and elegant, free and bold individuals. They appeared as individuals with their own lives and desires, making some call Cheret a pioneer in female liberation.Over time, his style evolved. With “Cherettes” taking the center focus, his compositions became more dynamic and typography-heavy. His posters, influenced by Rococo painters and Japanese woodblock prints, featured simplified backgrounds, flanked by glowing colors and textures. His work elevated lithography to an art form and became popular as it portrayed the gaiety of the time. VOICE NOTE TRANSCRIPT:Jules Cheret, 1836 to 1932, was the pioneer of color lithography and invented a new way of printing color.He started his artistic journey at 13 as an apprentice to a lithographer. Surprisingly, he barely had any formal art training, having taken only one formal course at the Ecole Nationale de Dessin in Paris. He moved to London to study photography and design from 1859 to 1866, later moving back to Paris to open his own firm. His firm was originally funded by a perfume manufacturer who loved Cheret’s design. Cheret imported his lithography machines from London as they did not exist in France at the time. He was known for his poster designs and prints, often printing his and other artists’ works at his print shop Imprimere Chaix in Paris during the Belle Epoque era. This generation of artists ushered in a more colorful period in printed works. He released a collection of 250 prints called the Les Maitres de l'Affiche.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jules_Ch%C3%A9retkeyword: richbreiman

Tom Paper's Glimpse Talk for GSB Reunion - October 2025

On October 11, 2025, Tom Paper gave this talk to his business school class at Stanford for their 35-year reunion. This talk was part of a group of 15 talks by classmates about a hobby or something significant in their life outside of work activities.                    Thank you!  google doc | google slide   

Switzerland Illustrated

shot 4/13/2024keyword: 19thCentury 8/29/24 (updated 11/29/25)"Switzerland Illustrated" by William Beattie is a two-volume work published in 1836 that features a series of scenic views of Switzerland. The illustrations were specially created by the artist W.H. Bartlett expressly for this publication. The book combines the beautiful artistic depictions of the Swiss landscape with informative text by William Beattie, M.D., providing both visual and descriptive appreciation of Switzerland's scenery and notable locations. It is known for its combination of art and travel writing, capturing Switzerland in a picturesque and engaging way.​William Beattie (1793–1875) was a Scottish physician, poet, and travel writer. He graduated with an M.D. from Edinburgh University and practiced medicine while engaging in literary work. Beattie is known for writing descriptive and historical travel works richly illustrated by his friend and fellow traveler, the artist William Henry Bartlett. Among his notable works is "Switzerland Illustrated," which combines his insightful text on Swiss history and geography with Bartlett's detailed scenic views. Beattie was also biographer of the poet Thomas Campbell and contributed to other literary and archaeological societies. He was a respected figure for both his medical and literary contributions and maintained friendships with prominent contemporaries. He died in London in 1875, leaving behind a diverse legacy of travel literature and poetry.Source: Perplexity.ai--G. Ly​

San Francisco Historic Maps

On March 11th, 2026, from 1 to 2pm, this talk will be given by Tom Paper and Jim Schein at the Century Club of California in San Francisco. Remarks of the talk here.On July 31st, 2025, from 5 to 7pm, a reception and presentation about San Francisco Historic Maps was held at YesSF, the San Francisco Chamber of Commerce's gallery space at 220 Montgomery Street. About 95 people attended the presentation given by Tom Paper, Founder of Pixeum, and Jim Schein, Founder of Schein & Schein. Remarks of the talk here.A group of about 35 maps from this presentation were viewable in the YesSF gallery space, from Monday July 27, 2025 through Friday, August 1st, 2025.  Follow-ups from the 7/31/25 eventBooks about SF:Imperial San FranciscoWhen the Water Came Up To Market StreetTowers of GoldSeasons of the WitchGold Mountain Big City Tom Paper is Founder of Pixeum, a website that helps people tell stories with art. Jim Schein is Founder of Schein & Schein, a map and print store originally based in North Beach.Biography of Jim ScheinJim Schein is the passionate founder of Schein & Schein, a renowned map and print store originally based in San Francisco’s North Beach neighborhood. With his wife, Marti, he opened the shop in 2003, combining a deep love for cartography, history, and travel into a unique retail experience that quickly became a cornerstone for map enthusiasts and collectors12.Schein grew up surrounded by academic influence, with close family pursuing careers in geography and landscape architecture. Diverging from a more traditional academic path, Jim charted his own journey—first as a manager in music logistics, where touring internationally allowed him to frequent antiquarian bookstores and amass a diverse map collection3. Eventually, his dedication to maps led him to establish his own store, nurturing a business with a personal touch and encyclopedic expertise in antique cartography.Schein & Schein thrived for nearly two decades, offering thousands of authentic maps and prints from the 14th to 20th centuries, especially highlighting San Francisco, California, and wine country. Jim’s zeal is not just for selling objects, but sharing stories—he’s been celebrated for preserving the tactile and historical aspects of maps in a digital age. In addition to curating rare items, he authored a book titled "Gold Mountain Big City," further cementing his status as a prominent figure in the world of cartography1.https://www.scheinandschein.com/about-serviceshttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wIlgRcEChIIhttps://www.inquirer.com/philly/living/20151101_Finding_a_new_career_in_his_zeal_for_maps.htmlhttps://www.scheinandschein.comhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ERbvVpWNwOMhttps://handfulofsalt.wordpress.com/2010/03/18/stores-we-love-schein-schein/ The exhibit of San Francisco Historic Maps is available as a pop-up exhibit for venues with 150 lineal feet of wall space. See below for information about prior exhibits...As a part of The California Map Society's Spring Conference, on June 28, 2025, Tom presented his digital collection of maps of San Francisco and what he finds most meaningful about each map. He hopes to inspire people to explore these maps further on their own at www.pixeum.org. This exhibit was first presented by Jim Schein and Tom Paper on April 18, 2019, at the offices of Webster Pacific in downtown San Francisco. The date, April 18, was the anniversary of the great earthquake and fire of 1906. The exhibit was a pop-up, which meant that it was put up and taken down within a span of six hours. Every image was printed and mounted onto a posterboard and then rested on a portable easel.  

San Francisco Panorama - Eadward Muybridge - 1877

2/21/25 - I had the pleasure of visiting the David Rumsey Map Center with the Stanford women’s club. We were hosted by Evan Thornberry, the director of the David Rumsey Map Center, and none other than David Rumsey himself. One highlight of the trip was seeing the recently acquired San Francisco panorama created in 1877 by the photographer Eadward Muybridge.

The Paper Bigelow Art Collection

Welcome to the Paper-Bigelow art collection. This is an example of how Pixeum can help a collector to share the stories of their collection. And in this sequence, I’m going to share just a few of the items in our collection. Eleanor and I love art and maps, but, more than that, we love the artists who created these works. We love their stories and their inspiration. And we especially love the story of how we came to purchase each piece and how each piece inspires us.Tom Papertom@pixeum.orgLink to Item Listing PDF 

Garden of Earthly Delights - Hieronymous Bosch - 1500

4/5/25 - I would love to collaborate with an expert on Bosch to annotate this image with DOTs. Pls email me at tom@pixeum.org if you are interested. And thank you Jerry Saltz for posting on Instagram about this image. Public Domain ReviewHieronymus Bosch, born Jheronimus van Aken[5],  c. 1450 – 9 August 1516) was a Dutch/Netherlandish painter from Brabant. He is one of the most notable representatives of the Early Netherlandish painting school. His work, generally oil on oak wood, mainly contains fantastic illustrations of religious concepts and narratives.[6] Within his lifetime his work was collected in the Netherlands, Austria, and Spain, and widely copied, especially his macabre and nightmarish depictions of hell.Little is known of Bosch's life, though there are some records. He spent most of it in the town of 's-Hertogenbosch, where he was born in his grandfather's house. The roots of his forefathers are in Nijmegen and Aachen (which is visible in his surname: Van Aken). His pessimistic fantastical style cast a wide influence on northern art of the 16th century, with Pieter Bruegel the Elder being his best-known follower. Today, Bosch is seen as a hugely individualistic painter with deep insight into humanity's desires and deepest fears. Attribution has been especially difficult; today only about 25 paintings are confidently given to his hand[7] along with eight drawings. About another half-dozen paintings are confidently attributed to his workshop. His most acclaimed works consist of a few triptych altarpieces, including The Garden of Earthly Delights.from Wikipediahttps://arth.sas.upenn.edu/people/larry-silver https://buff.ly/2VDX2YL keywords: artarch 

Mappa Mundi Exhibit (Courtney Spikes & Chet Van Duzer)

March 16, 2025 - Chet Van Duzer has a new project! Multispectral imaging for the Leardo mappamundi, made in the 1452.Please explore several examples of medieval mappa mundi, organized by date, with descriptions and links included.This exhibit was originally organized for a presentation by Courtney Spikes to Tom Paper's maps class at Williams College in January 2024. It has since been updated to include other mappamundi and work by Chet Van Duzer. 

Eight Interesting Aspects: Narragansett Bay and the Invention of Rhode Island - Andrew Middleton

Enter Andrew's first DOT story here. Enter Andrew's second DOT story here.Hidden in this British invasion map is the history of a state's founding identity.As of August 2024, Andrew Middleton has owned the Map Center, the oldest map store on the East Coast, for nine months, on his quest to introduce cartography enthusiasts to a new generation of maps. You can visit Andrew at the Map Center at 545 Pawtucket Ave, Pawtucket, Rhode Island and at https://www.mapcenter.com/. Andrew Middleton - DOT story - Eight Interesting Aspects - Narragansett Bay and the Invention of Rhode Island - 8/8/24Andrew Middleton - DOT story - Eight Interesting Aspects - The Myths of Rhode Island - 8/8/24

Passion & Conflict: Islamicate Maps of the Maghrib / ‘the West’ (Iberian Peninsula and North Africa)

KMMS Maghrib MapsFor more information on these 8th-15th century KMMS maps of North Africa and the Iberian Peninsula check out this detailed article on the subject by Karen Pinto, “Interpretation, Intention, and Impact: Andalusi Arab and Norman Sicilian Examples of Islamo-Christian Cartographic Translation”: https://www.academia.edu/37439184/Interpretation_Intention_and_Impact_Andalusi_Arab_and_Norman_Sicilian_Examples_of_Islamo_Christian_Cartographic_Translation Note that the bulk of the medieval Islamic cartographic tradition is characterized by emblematic images of striking geometric form that symbolize – in Atlas-like fashion – particular parts of the Islamic world to the familiar viewer. They comprise a major carto-geographic manuscript tradition known by the universal title of Kitab al-Masalik wa al-Mamalik (Book of Roads and Kingdoms) that was copied with major and minor variations throughout the Islamic world for eight centuries. It was a stylized amimetic vision restricted to the literati and, specifically, to the readers, collectors, commissioners, writers and copyists of the particular geographic texts within which these maps are encased. The plethora of extant copies dating from the eleventh to the eighteenth centuries produced all over the Islamic world – including Iraq, Iran, Syria, Egypt, North Africa, Anatolia, and even India – testifies to the long-lasting and widespread popularity of a particular medieval Islamic cartographic vision. Each manuscript typically contains twenty-one iconic maps starting with an image of the world, then the Arabian Peninsula, the Indian Ocean, the Maghrib (North Africa and Andalusia), Egypt, Syria, the Mediterranean, upper and lower Iraq, as well as twelve maps devoted to the Iranian provinces, beginning with Khuzistan and ending in Khurasan, including maps of Sind and Transoxiana.If you want to see more examples check out Pixeum exhibition 412 which contains “Islamic Maps from the Collection of Karen Pinto”: https://pixeum.org/exhibits/412/islamic-maps-from-the-collection-of-karen-pintoIf you have chance do check out my book on “Medieval Islamic Maps”  https://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/M/bo17703325.html  

Harmony Masks Conflict: The Mediterranean in the Medieval Islamic Imagination - Karen Pinto

Professor Karen Pinto has spent three decades at the forefront of the study of Islamic cartographic history. Her first book, Medieval Islamic Maps: An Exploration, came out in 2016, and she is currently working on a second, focusing on Islamic maps of the Mediterranean. Today, she is an Associate Scholar in the Religious Studies Department at the University of Colorado, Boulder."When I was a graduate student at Columbia in 1991, my professor, the late but incredibly great Olivia Remie Constable (1961-2014), suggested that I write a seminar paper on the medieval Muslim geographers. That sent me to the dark recessed of the Islamic history and geography collection on the 11th floor of the Butler Library. There I, literally, tripped over Konrad Miller’s late 1920’s extensive 6 volume: Mappae Arabicae: Arabische Welt und Länderkarten des 9–13. Jahrunderts. (6 vols. Stuttgart, 1926–1931) black and white reprints of hundreds of medieval Islamic maps hidden in Oriental manuscripts hitherto little known in the western history of cartography world.Miller’s dusty, crumbling black-and-white reprints of medieval Islamic maps of the Mediterranean, formed the basis of my first major work on the subject: “Ṣūrat Baḥr al-Rūm: The Mediterranean in the Medieval Muslim Cartographical Imagination,” my MA Essay at Columbia U that went on to win SSRC’s 1992 Ibn Khaldun Prize. That experience led, in turn, to a life-long obsession and hunt for maps scattered in Arabic, Persian, and Turkish manuscript libraries worldwide that resulted in her first book on Islamic maps of the world in “Medieval Islamic Maps: An Introduction” (Chicago, 2016) and a collection of some three thousand images of maps, many not reprinted. 

Jabal al-Qilal: Mediterranean Mystery Mountain Island

                Jabal al-Qilâl:Unraveling the Mystery of the Mythical Mountain Island Guarding the Mouth of the Mediterranean in Premodern Islamic Maps*Coincidental segway between previous SHD conference theme on mountains & forthcoming theme on islands*Dominating the mouth of the Mediterranean, every medieval Islamic Istakhrian map of the Mediterranean, North Africa, and Spain from the 11th century onwards has a thus-far unidentified mythical mountain-island named Jabal al-Qilâl located between the straits that separate Spain and North Africa.  So mysterious is this island that scholars have to date not even been able to definitively translate the meaning of it's name, “Qilâl,” in Arabic.  Nor have we been able to identify the location of this key but enigmatic mountain-island that dominated the Straits of Gibralter in the pre-modern Muslim imaginaire of the Mediterranean. Could it be related to ancient and medieval European traditions of the mysterious "Pillars of Hercules”  also said to have guarded the mouth of the Mediterranean?   The Islamic maps depict the island of Jabal al-Qilâl in a dramatic  scalloped triangular form dominated by one single mountain decorated with a variety of scary colored dots, stars, crescents, and pillars.  It is named in bold, striking calligraphy.  In the Islamic maps of the Mediterranean the mountain clearly guards the mouth of the Mediterranean, whereas with the maps of the Maghrib (which show the lands of North Africa and Spanish Andalusia) the mountain of Jabal al-Qilâl slips back further into the Mediterranean, closer to the European shore.  Based on extensive in-depth research of more than three decades on Islamic cartographic images of the Mediterranean and the Maghrib, along with on-site research, this paper will present possibilities for identifying this enigmatic but endlessly mysterious mountain-island that served as a lock into and out of the Mediterranean.Curated by Karen PintoProfessor Karen Pinto has spent three decades at the forefront of the study of Islamic cartographic history. Her first book, Medieval Islamic Maps: An Exploration, came out in 2016, and she is currently working on a second, focusing on Islamic maps of the Mediterranean. Today, she is an Associate Scholar in the Religious Studies Department at the University of Colorado, Boulder."When I started graduate school in history at Columbia in 1990, my professor, the late but incredibly great Olivia Remie Constable (1961-2014), suggested that I write a seminar paper on the medieval Muslim geographers. That sent me to the dark recessed of the Islamic history and geography collection on the 11th floor of the Butler Library. There I, literally, tripped over Konrad Miller’s late 1920’s extensive 6 volume: Mappae Arabicae: Arabische Welt und Länderkarten des 9–13. Jahrunderts. (6 vols. Stuttgart, 1926–1931) black and white reprints of hundreds of medieval Islamic maps hidden in Oriental manuscripts hitherto little known in the western history of cartography world.Miller’s dusty, crumbling black-and-white reprints of medieval Islamic maps of the Mediterranean, formed the basis of my first major work on the subject: “Ṣūrat Baḥr al-Rūm: The Mediterranean in the Medieval Muslim Cartographical Imagination,” my MA Essay at Columbia U that went on to win SSRC’s 1992 Ibn Khaldun Prize. That experience led, in turn, to a life-long obsession and hunt for maps scattered in Arabic, Persian, and Turkish manuscript libraries worldwide that resulted in her first book on Islamic maps of the world in “Medieval Islamic Maps: An Introduction” (Chicago, 2016) and a collection of some three thousand images of maps, many not reprinted. 

Islamic Maps from the Collection of Karen Pinto

Islamo-Christian Cartographic Frontiers: Views from Medieval Islamic Maps of the Mediterranean

Professor Karen Pinto has spent three decades at the forefront of the study of Islamic cartographic history. Her first book, Medieval Islamic Maps: An Exploration, came out in 2016, and she is currently working on a second, focusing on Islamic maps of the Mediterranean. Today, she is an Associate Scholar in the Religious Studies Department at the University of Colorado, Boulder."When I was a graduate student at Columbia in 1991, my professor, the late but incredibly great Olivia Remie Constable (1961-2014), suggested that I write a seminar paper on the medieval Muslim geographers. That sent me to the dark recessed of the Islamic history and geography collection on the 11th floor of the Butler Library. There I, literally, tripped over Konrad Miller’s late 1920’s extensive 6 volume: Mappae Arabicae: Arabische Welt und Länderkarten des 9–13. Jahrunderts. (6 vols. Stuttgart, 1926–1931) black and white reprints of hundreds of medieval Islamic maps hidden in Oriental manuscripts hitherto little known in the western history of cartography world.Miller’s dusty, crumbling black-and-white reprints of medieval Islamic maps of the Mediterranean, formed the basis of my first major work on the subject: “Ṣūrat Baḥr al-Rūm: The Mediterranean in the Medieval Muslim Cartographical Imagination,” my MA Essay at Columbia U that went on to win SSRC’s 1992 Ibn Khaldun Prize. That experience led, in turn, to a life-long obsession and hunt for maps scattered in Arabic, Persian, and Turkish manuscript libraries worldwide that resulted in her first book on Islamic maps of the world in “Medieval Islamic Maps: An Introduction” (Chicago, 2016) and a collection of some three thousand images of maps, many not reprinted. 

An Interactive 12th Century Islamic Map of the Mediterranean by Karen Pinto

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