Plotting the Oceans: Stories of powerful maps and their makers

Step into the world of exploration, science, and discovery as Professor Hamylton brings to life the remarkable stories behind some of history’s most influential maps and map makers. 

Maps are powerful. They carry messages via their carefully crafted designs, and work to shape society’s understanding of, and relationship with, the natural world. Charles Darwin mapped the world’s coral reefs to support a theory about how they formed at a time when they represented a mortal dangers to seafarers. In doing so, he developed ways of reasoning with maps that shaped his eventual theory of evolution. The trailblazing Marie Tharp, barred from ocean expeditions in the 1950s, nevertheless created the some of the first maps of the ocean floor, providing key evidence for the then radical ideas of plate tectonics and continental drift. Maps have triggered territorial claims, saved giant tortoises and brought home the fragility of the Great Barrier Reef in the face of climate change. Drawing on her own global adventures as a mapmaker, Professor Hamylton will uncover what lies behind – and beyond – the maps that shape how we see our world in a fun, engaging and thought-provoking hour of geographical storytelling and insights.