Save the Date for the 2026 Texas Map Society Spring Meeting

The TMS Spring Meeting will be held on Saturday, April 11th at the Rosenberg Library in Galveston.

The theme will be Mapping the Gulf of Mexico; a call for papers will be issued soon.

Besides the speakers, there will be a tour at the Rosenberg Library, possibly a trip to the Bryan Museum (or other venue on the island), and a casual dinner hosted by members Jim & Betty Key at their home.

CLICK HERE TO REGISTER FOR THE SPRING MEETING

TMS Spring Meeting – Galveston, TX – Schedule

Friday – April 10

2:00 PM – 5:00 PM – Tour of the Bryan Museum

5:30 – 8:00 PM – Dinner at Jim and Betty Key’s home

Saturday – April 11

9:00 – 9:30      Check-In & Coffee

9:30 – 9:45      Welcome – TMS President Mylynka Kilgore Cardona

9:45 – 10:15    Gene Rhea Tucker – “The Gulf of. . . : What’s in a Name?”

10:15- 10:45    Rodney Kite-Powell -”Mapping the American Sea: Early Cartographic History of the Gulf of Mexico”

10:45 – 11:00  MORNING BREAK

11:00 – 11:30  Jennifer Levin – “Mapping Mobile: Indigenous and French Interpretations of the Gulf, 1699-1711”

11:30 – 12:00  Jeff Dunn – “Galveston Island Bridges to the Mainland: 1859 to Date”

12:00 – 1:00    LUNCH

1:00- 1:30        Business Meeting & Upcoming Meetings Preview   

1:30 – 2:45      Map Corner – Bring your favorite map or other item for your collection to share     

2:45 – 3:00      AFTERNOON BREAK

3:00 – 5:00      Tour Rosenberg Archives & Museum

CALL FOR PAPERS

Mapping the Gulf of Mexico

April 10-11, Rosenberg Library, Galveston, Texas

The Texas Map Society invites paper proposals for its Spring Meeting dedicated to the spatial history, science, and visualization of the Gulf of Mexico. We seek to bring together map collectors, historians of cartography, marine scientists, geographers, archivists, digital humanities scholars, and others to explore the Gulf as a contested and evolving space.

From early colonial maritime charts to high-resolution bathymetric modeling, the mapping of the Gulf of Mexico has been central to geopolitical strategy, economic extractions, and environmental preservation. With this conference we aim to examine how the Gulf of Mexico has been defined by the tools used to measure it and the narratives built upon its waters.

We welcome paper proposals on, but not limited to, the role of maps in Spanish, French, and British colonial claims, historical and modern methods of mapping the Gulf floor and the Continental Shelf, environmental humanities, Indigenous geographies and the recovering of non-Western spatial knowledge and coastal navigation traditions, borders and jurisdictions, and digital humanities projects particularly as they relate to the Texas coast and/or its islands.

Submission Requirements

We welcome proposals for individual 20 minutes papers or pre-constituted panels.

  • Individual Abstracts: 250–300 words.
  • Panel Proposals: A 150-word session description plus short abstracts for each presenter.
  • Short Biography: A 100-word biography, can include relevant publications or projects.

Deadlines

  • Proposals Due: March 10
  • Acceptance Notification: March 15

Contact & Submissions

Please submit all materials in a single PDF directly to TMS VP Lydia Towns at Lydia.towns@sfasu.edu