Museum presentshistoric map exhibition

May 24, 2007

The Columbia River Maritime Museum will present Mapping the Pacific Coast: Coronado to Lewis and Clark, the Quivira Collection, from June 30 through September 30.

The exhibit will run daily 9:30 a.m. til 5:00 p.m. Members are admitted free, adults $8, seniors (65+) $7 and children ages 6-17 $4 with under six year olds free. A family rate for parents plus all the children in the family is $24.

Mapping the Pacific Coast documents the mapping of the West Coast of North America as illustrated by a selection of maps, books and illustrations dating from 1544 to 1802. The exhibit is generously sponsored by the Ralph W. & Susie Coe Endowment and the Wendt Family Charitable Foundation of the Community Foundation Sonoma County.

Mapping the Pacific Coast invites visitors on a voyage beginning with the first exploration of the West Coast by Europeans and leads to Thomas Jefferson’s commission of Lewis and Clark’s Corps of Discovery from 1804 to 1806. The exhibition traces one of the greatest adventures in history, including dangerous ocean voyages by Spanish, French, English and Russian explorers, the race to discover the Northwest Passage, sightings of “sea monsters,” and the very first contacts between Native Americans and Europeans. Many of the documents included in the exhibition are particularly relevant to the Northwest, with references to explorers such as Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo, Sir Francis Drake, and Captain James Cook, all of whom left their mark on the Pacific Coast. These histories are told through original maps and illustrations — the earliest being woodcuts and the majority being copperplate engravings. The maps are as much works of art as compendiums of knowledge.

"As Oregon’s official maritime museum, we’re both delighted and honored to host such a rare and exclusive display of the earliest known charts of the Pacific Northwest,” said Dave Pearson, curator of the Columbia River Maritime Museum. “These charts played a key role in the development of the Pacific Northwest and Oregon.”

“The Quivira Collection represents an unusual and important private collection of antique maps,” said Dr. Ronald Grim, Principal Curator, Geography and Map Division of the Library of Congress. “This collection, with its emphasis on mapping the northern Pacific Coast during one of the most dramatic periods of exploration, fills a niche not addressed in any of the several major exhibits across the U.S. in honor of the bicentennial of the Lewis & Clark Expedition.”

For more information call (503) 325-2323, or go online to http://www.crmm.org.