Feb. 5-7: Miami International Map Fair gives map collectors a great reason to escape the cold

Are you a serious collector of maps? Do you perhaps live somewhere cold and want to escape the weather? Look no further than Miami, because this February 5^th through 7^th, the HistoryMiami Museum is hosting the Miami International Map Fair—an event that has been taking place for twenty-three years. About forty of the world’s leading map dealers will be exhibiting material spanning five centuries, with prices matching every budget, ranging from $25 to over $100,000. The fair will also feature three speakers on cartographic subjects: Julie Sweetkind Singer, Assistant Director of Geospatial and Cartographic Data and the Head of the Branner Earth Sciences Library & Map Collections at Stanford University, Robert A. Leath, Vice-President of Collections and Research at Old Salem Museums and Gardens, and Catherine L. Newell, Ph.D., Assistant Professor of Religion and Science in the Department of Religious Studies at the University of Miami.

Two of the rarest maps on display also happen to be geographically appropriate for a fair based in the South. The first is the first printed map of South Carolina, and the first to call it by name. Drawn in 1695 with a focus on the area around Charleston, it is priced at $95,000. The second item is a very scarce and significant map of the Eastern Seaboard from Cape Lookout to Florida, with Cuba and the Bahamas. Drawn by Jacques Le Moyne de Morgues, the French artist who accompanied French explorer René de Laudonnière to Florida in 1564, it was published by Theodore de Bry in 1591.

Daily admission to the Map Fair is $20 for adults and children, $15 for HistoryMiami members and $10 for students with ID. Full access weekend registration is $70 per person for HistoryMiami members and $80 for non-members and includes a VIP Private Preview on Friday evening before the fair opens to the public, a cocktail reception with the map dealers, and complimentary lunch on Saturday and Sunday. A Friday night cocktail reception and dinner is available for $75 per person, in addition to the registration fee, and is open to full access weekend registrants only. Online Weekend Registration is open until February 3, 2016. Fair hours are Saturday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Sunday 12 to 5 p.m. at 101 West Flagler Street in downtown Miami. Parking is available at the Cultural Center Parking Garage, 50 NW 2 Avenue.

Below is a complete list of all exhibiting dealers at the fair:

Alexandre Antique Prints, Maps & Books

Antiquariat Reinhold Berg e.K.

Ashman Antique Nautical Paper

Antique Atlas, Inc.

Antique Maps and Atlases LLC

Antique Sommer KG

Arader Galleries

Barry Lawrence Ruderman Antique Maps

Bickerstaff's Books, Maps &c.

Clive A. Burden, Ltd.

Cohen & Taliaferro LLC