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J G Ballard was born #onthisday in 1930.

The young Ballard’s World War II internment in the Japanese Lunghua camp near Shanghai informed his 1984 novel ‘Empire of the Sun’. After the novel was published, readers sent Ballard letters; some of congratulations, others criticising his description of the camp. He also received lists, photographs and this wartime blueprint of the camp from 1943.

On it are marked the perimeter fence, barracks, guard houses and vegetable gardens that were Ballard’s home between 1942 and 1945, and which were to influence his writing throughout his life. #BLMaps

Image © Estate of J G Ballard

Here’s a sneak peek at our Maps and the 20th Century: Drawing the Line exhibition opening this Friday.

This stunning Soviet moon globe incorporates the earliest images of the far side of the moon (1961). You can also see William Anders’s ‘Earthrise’ photograph from 1968 (© NASA) in the background. #BLMaps

Book now http://bit.ly/2f09lay

(Photo: Claire Kendall)

Maps and the 20th Century: Drawing the Line opens in three weeks.

Two World Wars. The moon landings. The digital revolution. This exhibition of extraordinary maps looks at the important role they played during the 20th century. It sheds new light on familiar events and spans conflicts, creativity, the ocean floor and even outer space.

See how 20th-century maps didn’t just represent the world. They shaped it.
Book now http://bit.ly/2dBUFuB

#BLMaps

Image: Anthropocene Worlds ©Benjamin Hennig 2016

20th-century maps didn’t just represent the world. They shaped it.

From the original sketch of today's London Underground to the satellite imagery of the 1990s, our next exhibition shows just how much maps have moulded our past, present and future.

Maps and the 20th Century: Drawing the Line exhibition opens 4 November 2016, tickets on sale now http://bit.ly/2ceCgVS

#BLMaps

‘There is much that will stop visitors in their tracks'

+The Guardian on our #BLMaps exhibition http://bit.ly/2fgMjvI

Maps and the 20th Century: Drawing the Line is now open!

Have you ever tried disappearing off the map? It’s harder than you think to be invisible nowadays. That’s because 100 years of mapping technology has monitored and shaped the society we live in.

This exhibition of extraordinary maps includes collection items ranging from the first published map of the Hundred Acre Wood to secret spy maps, via the New York Subway. And, as technology advances further than we ever imagined possible, it questions what it really means to have your every move mapped. http://bit.ly/2f1gFTz #BLMaps

Image: Claire Kendall

Do you love all things maps? Enter our ballot to be in with the chance of winning an out-of-hours curator tour of Maps and the 20th Century: Drawing the Line!

You can go behind the scenes of our #BLMaps exhibition and enjoy a show-and-tell session featuring rare cartographic treasures. All hosted by lead curator Tom Harper.

See NASA’s map of the universe, the original sketch of today’s London Underground and A A Milne’s the Hundred Acre Wood. Get up close with other gems from our collection like the personal maps of the kings and queens of England, the earliest maps of London and New York, and secret spy maps from the 17th century.

Ask the experts anything you ever wanted to know about the rarest and oldest maps in the world at this intimate event.

Enter now http://bit.ly/2dhOeAy

(Image: ‘L'Entente cordiale’, an anti-British propaganda poster produced in Germany for a French audience, 1915.)