[posted to lismaps, MapHist and Maps-L]
The British Library Map Library is happy to announce what we hope will
be the first of many displays in its new building in St Pancras. "Wall
tiles and free parking: escape and evasion maps of World War II" will
be on show until the early summer.
The exhibition features items from the Waddington Archive describing
Waddington's involvement in an unusual venture during the Second World
War: creating maps on silk and tissue paper for military use and for
smuggling to prisoners of war. The maps were commissioned by MI9, the
branch of the Secret Service responsible for escape and evasion. The
archive of Waddington's correspondence relating to the military maps
fills four volumes and a small fraction concerning the early days of the
project is on display. The exhibition also features maps that the
prisoners in a Prisoner of War camp near Braunscweig printed themselves
on a home made printing press virtually under the noses of their German
guards.
The display is in the foyer of the Maps Reading Room, in the new
British Library building (96 Euston Road, London NW1 2DB).
If anyone would like more information or a copy of the accompanying
leaflet then please contact me by mail or email at the Map Library.
Debbie Hall
Map Library
[log in to unmask]
tel.: +44 (0)171 412 7702
fax.: +44 (0)171 412 7780
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