Biennial Virginia Garrett Lectures
When Virginia Garrett donated her extensive personal collection of maps, geography textbooks, and atlases to UTA in 1997, a special endowment was established to promote its use by inviting scholars to speak on topics relating to the history of cartography. As a result, every other year since 1998, the UTA Libraries have hosted the Virginia Garrett Lectures on the History of Cartography along with a special exhibit drawn primarily from Mrs. Garrett's collection.
Upcoming Lectures
The 15th Biennial Virginia Garrett Lectures on the History of Cartography will be held at the University of Texas at Arlington Libraries’ Special Collections on October 1-2, 2026. This year’s event, Frozen Frontiers: 500 Years of Mapping Antarctica, will explore how...
Past Lectures
- 2024 Cosmic Cartography | 2024 Exhibit Guide
- 2022 Texas! | Speakers, Schedule, Sponsorship, 2022 Exhibit Guide
- 2021 Searching for Africa: The Map Collection of Dr. Jack Franke | 2021 Speakers, 2021 Schedule, 2021 Exhibit Guide
- 2018 Paths to Highways: Routes of Exploration, Settlement, and Commerce | 2018 Lectures
- 2016 Enlightenment Mapmakers and the Southwest Borderlands | 2016 Exhibit Guide
- 2014 The Price of Manifest Destiny: War and American Expansion, 1800-1865 | 2014 Exhibit Guide
- 2012 Pearls of the Antilles: Printed Maps of the Caribbean Isles | 2012 Exhibit Guide
- 2010 Charting Chartered Companies: Concessions to Companies as Mirrored in Maps, 1600-1900 | 2010 Exhibit Guide
- 2008 Revisualizing Westward Expansion: A Century of Conflict in Maps, 1800 - 1900 | 2008 Exhibit Guide
- 2006 Mapping the Sacred: Belief and Religion in the History of Cartography | 2006 Exhibit Guide
- 2004 Mapmaker's Vision, Beholder's Eyes: The Art of Maps | 2004 Exhibit Guide