All Mapped Out: Maps, Plans and Charts in the Archives

Join the British Records Association at our Annual Conference focusing on a variety of map resources and challenges of their preservation.
About this Event

Maps are created for a variety of reasons sometimes explicit, sometimes unknown. They document physical places, but also the people who own and occupy them, and range in scope from ambitious attempts to present a view of the world to detailed records of a particular settlement.

Maps are interrogated for the information they hold, but can also serve to inspire reflection and creative practice. Digitisation can help to mitigate the preservation and access challenges inevitably associated with large format documents, while providing opportunities for new approaches to mapping drawing on complementary archival sources.

Our programme reflects the aims of the British Records Association, namely the preservation, understanding, accessibility and study of our recorded heritage.

Programme

9.30-10.00 Coffee/registration

10.00-10.10 Welcome from the British Records Association (BRA)

10.10-11.00 Maps in Focus (Chair: Victoria Northwood)

The Missing Maroons of The Great Dismal Swamp Sketch Map (Tim May, Curator of Maps and Mobilities, Royal Museums Greenwich)

Arabia and the Gulf: Mapped, Catalogued, Digitised and Gratis (Nick Krebs, Content Specialist Maps and Gulf History, British Library)

11.00-11.05 Break

11.05-12.45 Engagement and Interpretation (Chair: David Prior)

Thinking outside the neatline: creative responses to historic maps (Ellie King, Assistant Map Curator, National Library of Wales)

Mapping social status in 19th and 20th century communities (Jo Kent, Lead Curator of Digital Mapping, British Library)

Historic maps and historical mapping: the Historic Towns Trust (Vanessa Harding, Professor Emerita of London History, Birkbeck, University of London)

Mapping the past for the future (Kate Rose, Joint project lead for the ‘Mapping the past for the future’ project, Kresen Kernow)

12.45-14.00 Lunch, including BRA AGM

14.00-15.10 Maps and Conservation (Chair: Stephen Freeth)

Challenging Conservation: The Preservation of Maps, Plans and Charts (Rachel Marsh, Archive Conservator, Surrey History Centre)

‘I am angry at such folly, but the deed is done’ - the long history of conservation of the Hereford Mappa Mundi (Andrew Honey, Book Conservator, Research and Teaching, Bodleian Library, Oxford)

Conserving the Kunyu Wanguo Quantu, Questioning Past Narratives about Early Modern Sino-European knowledge exchange (Dr Katherine Parker, Cartographic Collections Manager, Royal Geographical Society (with IBG))

15.10-15.25 Tea break

15.25-16.40 Regional Maps (Chair: Matti Watton)

Accessing Birmingham's large-scale maps (John Townley, Independent Researcher and Committee Member of the Friends of Birmingham Archives and Heritage)

The Reality of the First Industrial City: Modern Manchester told through Tithe Maps (Cathy Hirst, Research and Editorial Officer, Manchester Cathedral)

The Permatrace Predicament: Digitising Archaeological Site Plans for Engagement (Ellie Drew and Liz Wilson, Collections and Archives, York Archaeology)

16.40-16.45 Close

*Conference fees include full catering for the day*

Access: There is lift access to the Gallery

Banner Image Citation:

‘PENINSULA OF ADEN’ [‎1r] (1/2), British Library: Map Collections, IOR/X/3257, in Qatar Digital Library [accessed 9 August 2026]