Picture of the Day: The Stained Glass Mapparium
THE STAINED GLASS MAPPARIUM
The Mapparium is a three-story, stained glass globe of the world located at the Mary Baker Eddy Library in Boston, Massachusetts. Built in 1935, the mapparium has attracted more than 10 million visitors since. The original map was based on a Rand McNally political map of 1934 and has never been updated, serving as a snapshot of both geographic and global history.
Inspired by the famous spinning globe in the lobby of the New York Daily News building, architect Chester Lindsay Churchill was commissioned to design the Mapparium. Made of 608 stained glass panels, the Mapparium was designed to allow the countries of the world to be viewed in accurate geographical relationship to each other.
A traditional globe is viewed from the outside with different parts of the globe at different distances from the eye, distorting perspective. By viewing the Earth from within, the eye is at the same distance from every point on the map. This produces an unique perspective of the globe.
Sign up to get our BEST stories of the week straight to your inbox.