Unquiet Journeys: Mapping the Underground Railroad
(online) Milwaukee, USA
Currently, Professor Lewis’s research explores the ways the Underground Railroad is described across space and interpretation, using architectural representation to propose critical counter-narratives. Her visualizations of the Underground Railroad was featured in 2022 in Crossings: Mapping American Journeys, an exhibition at the Newberry Library, which visualized three stories of men and women who escaped slavery and created their Underground Railroads.
This hybrid presentation will share the research, mapping, and graphic tools employed by Professor Lewis, mapping and visualizing the embedded narratives. By expanding archival narratives, researching historical maps and records, and linking architectural, topographic, and urban conditions across current landscapes, the mapping project gives insight into both the performance of those who created their paths out of slavery, as well as cartographic tools that engage research, design and audience participation.
This will be the 33rd “Maps & America” lecture, supported by an endowment created by Arthur and Janet Holzheimer.