John Woitkowitz has been awarded a Herzog-Ernst-Fellowship to conduct archival research in the Justus Perthes Collections at the Gotha Research Library in Gotha, Germany.
The collections of the Perthes Publishing House are a key repository in the history of cartographies of the polar regions during the nineteenth century. As part of his case study research into the history of theories of an open polar sea, John will examine the ways natural philosophy, local knowledges, and speculative geographies found spatial representations in the maps of European and American cartographers. He will, moreover, explore the material culture of map-making at the Perthes Publishing House based on the records and objects held by the Gotha Research Library.
John joins an international cohort of fellowship recipients at the Gotha Research Center of the University of Erfurt for a one-month stay in April 2020. He will present his case study work in the Center’s research seminar and discuss the Arctic Cultures project.
Image: “Map showing the regions of permanent snow and ice,” SPK-90-1 A-02, Justus Perthes Collection, Gotha Research Library. Photograph by J. Woitkowitz, 20 May 2019.
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