Museum examines The Map That Changed the World: Author Simon Winchester lectures Sunday, August 25

August 15, 2002
For Immediate Release
For Arts, Entertainment, and Calendar Editors
Contacts: Karen Kemp (919) 733-7450, ext. 304 or Contact: Marjorie Terry (919) 733-7450, ext. 305

RALEIGH—The North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences hosts a lecture by international author and journalist Simon Winchester on Sunday, August 25, 5:30–6:30 p.m., in the WRAL Digital Theater. A reception follows from 6:30 to 7:30 p.m. The event is co-sponsored by Quail Ridge Books and Music of Raleigh and Friends of the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences.

Winchester discusses his 2001 book, The Map That Changed the World: William Smith and the Birth of Modern Geology—the fascinating and improbable story of William Smith, a 19th-century surveyor and engineer who became obsessed with creating the world’s first geological map, and ultimately became the father of modern geology.

Admission to the lecture is $5; $3 for members of the Friends of the Museum. From 3:00–5:00 p.m., Winchester will sign books for the public. Museum curators Chris Tacker and Vince Schneider will also be on hand to interpret specimens from the geology and paleontology collections, including geologic maps of North Carolina. Seating is limited for the lecture/reception; please RSVP to Friends of the Museum at 919/733-7450, ext. 303.

In 1815, Smith’s richly color-coded, hand-drawn map detailed for the first time the various layers of Britain’s strata. Smith’s map would become a cornerstone of the study of geology—and according to Winchester, one of the most often overlooked works of science produced.

“Once you could predict what lay a thousand feet below the surface, or 2000 feet, then suddenly you could make use of your natural resources. I think that was the way that William Smith’s map changed the world,” said Winchester in a 2001 interview with The Atlantic Online.

William Smith, the orphaned son of an English country blacksmith, became interested in fossils and rocks at an early age. Throughout his years as surveyor and canal engineer, Smith traveled the length and breadth of the country, noting various rock formations and working out relationships between them by studying fossil-distribution patterns.

Smith realized two key things. First, the relative age of a layer of rocks can be identified by comparing the fossils that are found in one layer to those found in other layers. Second, that these rock layers tend to be arranged in a consistent pattern. Using these concepts, and his knowledge of strata throughout Great Britain, he was able to create the first geological map of England, Wales, and a section of Scotland.

Smith charted his epochal findings in a beautifully hand-painted map, more than eight feet tall and six feet wide. Four years after its triumphant publication in 1815, Smith was sentenced to debtor’s prison, plagiarized and swindled out of his recognition and his profits. He left London for northern England and remained homeless for ten years. In 1831, Sir John Johnstone, his sympathetic employer, championed Smith to the Geological Society of London, which had earlier denied him a fellowship. At age 62, Smith received the society’s highest award: the first-ever Wollaston Medal, geology’s equivalent to the Nobel Prize.

The world’s coal and oil industry, gold mining, highway systems, and railroad routes were all derived from the creation of Smith’s first map. With thoughtful detail, Simon Winchester unfolds Smith’s poignant sacrifice behind this world-changing discovery in his 19th book, The Map That Changed the World.

Author Simon Winchester studied geology at Oxford University and began his writing career as a journalist for Britain’s Guardian and London Sunday Times newspapers. He has written for Conde Nast Traveler, Smithsonian, and National Geographic magazines. Winchester’s work has also appeared in Atlantic Monthly, New York Times, and Harper’s. His books include The River at the Center of the World, and The Fracture Zone: A Return to the Balkans. In 1998, Winchester authored the international best-seller, The Professor and The Madman, the story of convicted murderer Dr. W. C. Macon, and the compiling of the Oxford English dictionary.

The event is co-sponsored by the Friends of the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences and Quail Ridge Books and Music. Raleigh’s independent bookstore since 1984, Quail Ridge Books and Music has been voted “Best in the Triangle” by Spectator Magazine, Independent Weekly, and Citysearch.com. QRBM was named Publishers Weekly “Bookseller of the Year” in 2001.

Friends of the Museum is a private, nonprofit organization whose purpose is to preserve, develop, enhance, advance and maintain North Carolina’s natural heritage through the Museum. Friends offers individuals and businesses the opportunity to support the Museum through membership, sponsorship, and donations.

The North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences, in downtown Raleigh, documents and interprets the natural history of the state of North Carolina through exhibits, research, collections, publications, and educational programming. Hours: Mon.-Sat., 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., and Sun., noon to 5 p.m. Admission is free. Visit the Museum on the web at www.naturalsciences.org. The Museum is an agency of the N.C. Department of Environment and Natural Resources, William G. Ross Jr., Secretary.

Home	What's New?	Visitor Info	Calendar	Exhibits
	Education	Research	Museum Store	Join Us!
Search	Fun Stuff	Site Map	Staff Directory	Links