Please join us for an evening at the University of Southern Maine as we learn about the city of Portland in the 1830s—through maps—with our colleagues from the Osher Map Library and Smith Center for Cartographic Education in a talk entitled “Mapping Portland in the 1830s”. Dr. Libby Bischof, Executive Director and Public Historian, and Louis Miller, Assistant Director for Research and Fellowships, will utilize John Cullum’s 1836 Map of the City of Portland with Latest Improvements to explore our historic city. This unique, full color, early map shows the community centers and development patterns of the city before trains changed everything.
This lecture serves as a prelude to our exhibit Portland by Land, Portland by Sea, opening at the Portland Public Library in January 2026 with an accompanying lecture series. Transportation has always been the invisible architect of our cities—from port cities clustered around harbors, to trolley lines that enabled suburbs in the early twentieth century, to buses, planes, and cruise ships that reshaped waterfronts and economies. Mapping Portland in the 1830s will set the foundation to examine how these forces have left their mark on Portland’s landscape and continue to influence the city today.
John Cullum, A Map of the City of Portland, with its Latest Improvements...,1836. Courtesy of the Osher Map Library and Smith Center for Cartographic Education, University of Southern Maine.
EVENT DETAILS
Date: Thursday, December 4, 2025
Time: 5:30 PM
Location: McGoldrick Center, Salons A-C, 2nd floor, University of Southern Maine, 35 Bedford Street, Portland, ME
Fee: FREE admission but registration is required. Donations greatly appreciated and will help us offer more free and low-cost programming.
Details: Lecture accompanied by light refreshments. This is an in-person event only. Parking available in the Bedford Street Garage for $4.15/hour or street parking.
Please email Aimée Keithan or call 207.358.7064 with questions!
MEET OUR SPEAKERS
Libby Bischof is Executive Director of the Osher Map Library and Smith Center for Cartographic Education, Professor of History, and the inaugural University Historian at the University of Southern Maine, where she has taught courses in Maine History, History and Photography, Popular Culture, and Public History for the past 18 years. A visual and cultural historian of the 19th and 20th centuries, Bischof is interested in the ways in which friendship informs cultural production, especially in relation to landscape and place. A public historian, Bischof believes deeply in site-based, hands-on education, and the ways in which teaching local and regional history can lead to deeper civic engagement. She lives with her husband and children in Gorham, Maine, and when she’s not working, she’s either reading, swimming, hiking, or sending postcards.
Louis Miller is the Assistant Director for Research and Fellowship Programs and Cartographic Reference and Teaching Librarian at the University of Southern Maine’s Osher Map Library and Smith Center for Cartographic Education (OML). He has been at the OML for five years. Prior to his current role he worked for five years at the William L. Clements Library at the University of Michigan, primarily with the manuscript, graphics, and map collections. He published his research article "'Honor For All'? Commemoration of the First World War in Kalamazoo," in volume 45, no. 2 of the Michigan Historical Review (Fall 2019) and is currently enrolled in the PhD program at the University of Maine pursuing a doctorate in history. His current research focuses on maps, visual culture, and community identity in the mid-19th century. Louis lives in South Portland with his spouse, three sons, and two cats.
