An Exhibit to Celebrate Marie Tharp, Ypsilanti’s Revolutionary Mapmaker

The Challenge: How can we share the world-changing achievements of a revolutionary mapmaker from Ypsilanti?

For an inland community like Ypsilanti, Michigan, the Atlantic ocean can seem very far away, to children especially. When our friend and geology professor Katherine Ryker mentioned that Marie Tharp, the woman who mapped underwater mountains at the bottom of the ocean (the Mid-Atlantic ridge), was born in Ypsilanti, ideas began to spark! As we dug in, we realized how her story might resonate with the community.

As a woman in science in the 1940s and 50s, Tharp wasn’t allowed to conduct research on ships, because “Women on ships were bad luck.” When she pivoted to cartography, and began to map, by hand, the bottom of the ocean using sonar data from the war, her ideas were dismissed— because at the time scientists believed that the bottom of the ocean was smooth and flat like the bottom of a swimming pool. Over time her work was recognized and her discovery of the Mid Atlantic ridge, the largest chain of underwater mountains, formed the basis of our understanding of how the earth was formed.

Partnering with FLY Creativity Lab (Laura Amtower and Allida Warn), Dr. Katherine Ryker from EMU’S Geology and Geography department and Dr. Cassie Byrd (formerly of the San Francisco Exploratorium), we set forth on an adventure to create a summer learning experience for youth that we could bring to community centers in the city. We applied for and were accepted to exhibit at POP-X in Ann Arbor, an interactive outdoor exhibit that provided small structures to artists to create engaging experiences in. Lastly, we partnered with Riverside Arts Center to transform their gallery into an exhibit.

POP-X provided the structure, and we created the exhibit inside. Visitors experience the story of Marie Tharp on the walls of the building— through a mix of text, images and drawings. A flock of small zines were hung from the ceiling for visitors to take. Guests learned about sonar, underwater volcanos and mountains, and women in science. We encouraged visitors to wonder, about anything, by writing on post it notes, posting them in an area marked “Known” and “Unknown”.