XIXth International Conference on the History of Cartography, Madrid, 1-6 July 2001

The Nineteenth International Conference on the History of Cartography was held in Madrid, Spain, 1-6 July 2001. The first meeting of experts in the history of cartography was held long ago, in the year 1964 in the Royal Geographic Society, London, during the XXth International Geographical Congress as one of the related symposia. That Congress was an impressive affair. It was opened by the queen of England herself, and was attended by various other dignitaries. The symposia on the history of cartography afterwards come to be referred to as the First International Conference on the History of Cartography (ICHC). The success of the symposium in 1964 led to a second, organised in London again in the year of 1967, attended by the impressive number of participants (200). From that time the International Conferences on the History of Cartography are organised biennially, mostly in Europe, except three of them that took place in the USA and Canada. Besides the main sessions there have been other activities at the conferences, most conspicuously the exhibits, excursions as well as receptions and visits. The conference introduced the meetings of various specialised groups such as International Cartographic Association’s Commission on the History of Cartography, International Society of Curators of Early Maps (ISCEM), Imago Mundi and the round table on theoretical aspects on the history of cartography. The biennial International Conferences on the History of Cartography are held under the auspices of Imago Mundi Ltd. They bring together a wide array of scholars who are interested in all aspects of the production and consumption of maps: historians of cartography, geographers, cartographers, librarians and archivists, art historians, literary scholars and scholars from other related disciplines.