18 Feb 2013
Museum Club is an after school club for primary school children held at the National Maritime Museum every week. This term, the Club is focussing on the theme of mapping and we are researching the collections to find inspiration for making our own maps. We visited the Caird Library to view a selection of maps, charts and atlases and to quiz curator of Hydrography, Brian Thynne. There was much discussion around the design and purpose of decorative images and symbols used on maps such as the sea monsters, ships and anchors on the maps of Lucas Janz Waghenaer. We also enjoyed seeing the familiar shape of the river Thames and finding the names of places we know on the maps of John Rocque. The visit provided lots of inspiration for our own maps, including adding our own monsters and decorative borders and writing labels and cartouches in different languages. Most of us agreed that it was good to see the real maps to get a sense of how old and delicate they are.
Our maps will go on display at the National Maritime Museum in the Easter holidays.