Maps: Digital | Analogue
Proudly held with the Bodleian Libraries, Oxford
The Sunderland Collection is delighted to announce its upcoming Symposium, Maps: Digital | Analogue, proudly held in partnership with the Bodleian Libraries at the University of Oxford.
Click here to register for your free tickets
Discover the fascinating art and science of digitising historical maps and atlases, the analysis of colour on antique maps, and cutting-edge conservation techniques.
This day-long event will take place live at the Weston Library, and online, on Thursday 26 February 2026. The event is free to attend in person or online. Registration is essential so book your seat now
Desceliers, 1546. French MS 1* ©Rylands Institute and Library, The University of Manchester
Programme
09:15 - Registration with tea and coffee in Blackwell Hall
10:00 - Welcome
Opening remarks from Richard Ovenden OBE, Head of Gardens, Libraries, and Museum at Oxford University.
10:15-11:30 - Digital Traces: Uncovering Maps' Hidden Histories
Morning panel discussion and Q&A with the Bodleian's own Map Librarian Nick Millea will introduce us to the remarkable late-sixteenth century Sheldon Tapestry Maps. Nick will be joined by Map Curator Donna Sherman & Imaging Manager Jamie Robinson will shine a light on two treasures from The Rylands Institute: the Borgia/Velletri map and Pierre Desceliers' world map.
11:30-11:45 - Comfort break
11:45-13:00 - Born Digital: The World of Online Gaming Maps
Architect and graphic designer Eric de Broche des Combes from the Harvard Graduate School of Design will take us on a journey into another dimension: the world of native digital maps and maps in online game design.
13:00-14:00 - Lunch break in Blackwell Hall
During lunch there will be a selection of maps and atlases on display from The Sunderland Collection, the Bodleian Collection, including maps from the British Cartographic Society.
14:00-14:45 - Globes and Conservation
Leading globe authority Sylvia Sumira will take us behind the scenes in her work as an expert and conservator of historic printed globes.
14:45-15:00 - Comfort break
15:00-16:00 - Colouring and Pigments
Afternoon panel discussion and Q&A with Professors Dr. Diana Lange from the Humboldt University of Berlin, and Dr. Oliver Hahn of Hamburg University who will discuss their pioneering research into colours on old maps with Dr Sara Öberg Strådal, Medieval manuscript specialist and Director of Jörn Günther Rare Books.
16:00-16:15 - Closing remarks and event end
Comparative image showing two versions of De Jode's cordiform world map, 1578 ©The Sunderland Collection
Meet the Speakers
Photo by John Cairns
Nick Millea is Map Curator at the Bodleian Libraries, an Honorary Fellow and 'Bartholomew Globe' winner at the Royal Scottish Geographical Society, and Chair of the British and Irish Committee for Map Information and Cataloguing Systems. He is also a founding member of The Oxford Seminars in Cartography.
Nick has published extensively on maps, including 50 Maps and the Stories They Tell, co-authored with Jerry Brotton. He has curated several exhibitions at the Bodleian, including Talking Maps.
©The Rylands Institute, University of Manchester
Donna Sherman is the Map Curator and Special Collections Librarian at the John Rylands Institute at the University of Manchester.
She is responsible for curating the cartographic collection to exemplary standards and providing collections-based support to all researchers and learners. With an audience-focused approach, she works to embed the collections into research and discovery, teaching and learning and public engagement activities. She has over 15 years’ experience of working with the map and atlas collections at the University of Manchester.
©The Rylands Institute, University of Manchester
Jamie Robinson is the Imaging Manager at the John Rylands Institute and Library at the University of Manchester. He leads imaging activity and development to support research, teaching and learning and public engagement activity; developing the implementation of advanced photographic methods and liaising with researchers and curators to support and develop activities of Special Collections.
©Ex Carta
Eric de Broche des Combes is an architect, graphic designer, and musician. After the success of his first visualisation studio, Auralab (established Paris, 1999), he following by founding the internationally renowned Luxigon, producing distinctive 3D renderings and visualisations for some of the world's leading architectural firms. Eric collaborates with design teams, contributes to publications and gives lectures on the theory, practice and history of image, with the emphasis on being authentic in the current context.
He holds a teaching position at the Harvard Graduate School of Design in Cambridge, Massachusetts, where he has been lecturing a class module ‘Fortress of Solitude’ (formerly ‘Immersive Landscape’) since 2013.
©The Sunderland Collection
Sylvia Sumira is an independent conservator specialising in globes. After graduating in History of Art from Leicester University, she gained a post-graduate diploma in Conservation of Fine Art on Paper. She worked in globe conservation at the National Maritime Museum in Greenwich for several years and spent a period of study at the Austrian National Library in Vienna.
Sylvia has carries out extensive work for many private clients and public institutions internationally. She is an accredited member of the UK Institute of Conservation and a Fellow of the International Institute for Conservation of Historic and Artistic Works.
©The Sunderland Collection
Dr. Diana Lange holds a PhD in Central Asian Studies from Humboldt University of Berlin (2008) where she has been employed as a research associate at the Institute for Asian and African Studies since 2005. Trained in Sinology and Central Asian Studies, she has specialized on Tibet and China as her primary research areas. She has wide-ranging interests including the history of knowledge and exploration, material and visual cultures, historical cartography, and cultural interactions.
She has been a post-doc Gerda Henkel Fellow at the University of Leipzig, a visiting lecturer at the University of Zürich and an associated researcher in the European Research Council Project TibArmy at the CNRS in Paris.
©The Sunderland Collection
Dr. Oliver Hahn received his PhD in Chemistry in 1996. After a postdoctoral research stay at the Department for Restoration and Conservation of Books, Graphic Arts and Archival Materials at TH Köln – University of Applied Sciences, he now works for Germany's Federal Institute for Materials Research and Testing (Bundesanstalt für Materialforschung und -prüfung, or BAM) as Head of Division 4.5 'Analysis of Artefacts and Cultural Assets'.
He has been Professor of Material Analysis in Art and Manuscript Studies at the University of Hamburg since 2014.
©The Sunderland Collection
Dr Sara Öberg Strådal is an art historian and expert in medieval scientific and medical images and diagrams (MPhil and PhD, University of Glasgow). Her previous work at the Fitzwilliam Museum, University of Cambridge and, most recently, as a Getty/ACLS Research Fellow focused on volvelles and the circulation of interactive diagrams in manuscripts, print and other media.
She is the Managing Director at Dr. Jörn Günther Rare Books, the world leading specialist dealer of medieval and Renaissance manuscripts and miniatures.
Bodleian Libraries is the library service supporting the University of Oxford. Its mission is to support the learning, teaching and research objectives of the University; and to develop and maintain access to Oxford's unique collections for the benefit of scholarship and society.
Libraries in the group include the Bodleian Library itself - founded in 1606 - alongside 25 other libraries across Oxford. Together, the Libraries hold more than 13 million printed items, over 80,000 e-journals and outstanding special collections including rare books and manuscripts, classical papyri, maps, music, art and printed ephemera.
Bodleian Libraries are also a key part of Oxford’s cultural community and leads an exciting programme of public exhibitions and events to engage communities with collections.
Find out more about the Library and their forward programme of events by visiting www.bodleian.ox.ac.uk
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The Sunderland Collection Symposia are dynamic, hybrid conferences that aim to bring map enthusiasts of all backgrounds into conversation with the latest ideas and cartographic developments.
You can find links below to our inaugural Symposium at the Bodleian Libraries in October 2023, and our conference held at the Royal Geographical Society in October 2025 below. Find out about past guest speakers and watch back each presentation and panel discussion.
