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Myths, Maps, & Matter: A History of the Moon

Author Talk with Smithsonian Curator Matthew Shindell

The Moon captivates our collective imagination, serving as a calendar, a mythic deity, an artistic muse, and a scientific frontier.

Join us for a fascinating virtual conversation with Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum curator Matthew Shindell as we delve into his book, Lunar: A History of the Moon in Myths, Maps, and Matter.

President John F. Kennedy’s rousing “We will go to the Moon” speech in 1961 before the US Congress catalyzed the celebrated Apollo program, spurring the US Geological Survey’s scientists to map the Moon. Over the next eleven years a team of twenty-two, including a dozen illustrator-cartographers, created forty-four charts that helped set the course of space exploration.

For the first time, each of those beautifully hand-drawn, colorful charts is presented together in one stunning book. In Lunar, National Air and Space Museum curator Matthew Shindell’s expert commentary accompanies each chart, along with the key geological characteristics and interpretations that were set out in the original Geologic Atlas of the Moon. 

Interwoven throughout the book are contributions from scholars devoted to studying the multifaceted significance of the Moon to humankind around the world. Traveling from the Stone Age to the present day, they explore a wide range of topics: the prehistoric lunar calendar; the role of the Moon in creation myths of Ancient Egypt, Greece, and Rome; the role of the Moon in astrology; the importance of the Moon in establishing an Earth-centered solar system; the association of the Moon with madness and the menstrual cycle; how the Moon governs the tides; and the use of the Moon in surrealist art.

Register today for a thorough exploration of the Moon’s role in popular culture, science, and myth!

About the Author:

Matthew Shindell is a historian of science and technology whose work focuses on the exploration of the Earth, Moon, and planets and the research programs that made this exploration possible. He is a Space History Curator at the Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum, and the co-host of the Museum's podcast, AirSpace. 

Shindell holds a Ph.D. from the University of California, San Diego's History Department and Science Studies Program. He also holds an MFA in Creative Writing from the University of Iowa's Writers' Workshop. He is the author of For the Love of Mars: A Human History of the Red Planet  (2023) and The Life and Science of Harold C. Urey (2019), coauthor of Spaceships (2023), Our Future in Space (2023), and Discerning Experts (2019), editor of LUNAR: A History of the Moon in Myths, Maps, and Matter, and co-editor of Smithsonian American Women  (2019).  

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