Here to There

Mapmaking has never been an easy job. If you weren't lamenting the earth being flat or figuring out a secret passageway to India, you were hoping Stalin would like your communist cartography—so you wouldn't be shot. Mapmakers after the Civil War had a uniquely challenging (if slightly less life-threatening) task: document the growth of the West. What they created was a series of bird's-eye view maps, hand-drawn with remarkable detail. The Amon Carter Museum in Fort Worth has the largest collection of these maps after the Library of Congress, and they're putting them on display through May. Texas cities like Dallas, Denton, McKinney and Plano are on the walls, with some of the lithographs as large as three feet across. It gives one a new appreciation for the urban changes of the last 150 years. Patterns of Progress: Bird's-Eye Views of Texas runs Thursday through May 28 at the Amon Carter Museum, 3501 Camp Bowie Blvd. in Fort Worth. Tickets are $6 for adults, $4 for seniors and students. Call 817-738-1933 or visit cartermuseum.org.
Sundays, 12-5 p.m.; Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Fridays, Saturdays, 10 a.m.-5 p.m.; Thursdays, 10 a.m.-8 p.m. Starts: Feb. 19. Continues through May 28