The Mapping our Exeter project originated as a single event for the Being Human Festival in 2022. The Being Human Festival, which takes place each year in November across the UK and internationally, celebrates humanities research through informal and interactive public engagement events and activities.

At the University of Exeter's Special Collections, the core of our work is providing access to the university's collections of archives, rare books and maps. While the main way to access the collections is through private study in our designated reading room, we recognise that this will not appeal to everyone, so we are always eager to explore new and different ways for people to access and engage with our collections. The Being Human Festival was an ideal opportunity to take our collections out into the community and engage with audiences we might not otherwise reach.

Exeter (1810)

Aware that we hold several fascinating historic maps of Exeter, we were keen to share these with the wider community through both a physical and digital exhibition. In the months leading up to the event, we selected historic maps of Exeter from our Cartography, Townsend and Edmund collections, and sought permission for those maps that were still in copyright. The maps were then carefully photographed by staff and interns at the Digital Humanities Lab and high-resolution images were produced. A selection of images were printed on large foam boards and the digital images were uploaded onto our Digital Collections site, which you can view as part of this exhibit.

The Being Human Festival also encouraged a digital element to the event, and for this we were inspired by one of our archives, the Common Ground Archive. In 1985, the arts and environmental charity, Common Ground, launched its popular and enduring Parish Maps project, which encouraged people to identify what is distinctive about their local area and what they value, and then to chart this on a map. Motivated by this approach to map-making, we created an interactive digital map using Google My Maps. At the event, we would invite contributions of places in the city that are special or important - for whatever reason - to the people who live, work or visit Exeter.

We were delighted that one of our close cultural partners in Exeter - the Devon and Exeter Institution - kindly agreed to collaborate with us by hosting the event in the historic library on Cathedral Green and adding maps of Exeter and Devon from their own collections to the physical exhibition at the event.

Map of Exeter in 1832: Shewing the localities where the Deaths caused by Pestilential Cholera occurred (c 1834)

On Saturday 12 November 2022, the Mapping our Exeter free drop-in event was held from 10am to 12:30pm at the Devon and Exeter Institution. We were delighted to welcome approximately 65 people of all ages, including young children. The large touchscreens (kindly lent to us by the Digital Humanities Lab) were particularly popular, and visitors enjoyed using to zoom in and out on some of the finer details of the historic maps. We were so pleased with the interest shown towards our Special Collections, the display of historic maps, and the new digital map of Exeter during the event.

Some of feedback we received on the event included:

‘Thank you – a fascinating event.’ 

‘Wonderful display of maps. The large digital screens are particularly effective.’  

‘You have really inspired my children. They loved exploring the maps, especially the cholera map.’