The map of the hemispheres presented in the exhibition of the Rusanov House Museum was printed in 1826.

Starting with cave paintings, maps of ancient Babylon, Greece, and Asia, through the Age of Discovery and to this day, people have created and used maps to make it easier to determine their location and continue their journey around the world. According to some scientists, mapping represents a significant step forward in the intellectual development of humankind. It is worth noting that cartography probably originated even before the advent of writing in primitive society. This is evidenced, for example, by the fact that peoples who had no written script at the time of their discovery had developed cartographic skills. Travelers who asked the Eskimos of North America about the location of the surrounding islands and coasts received relatively clear descriptions in the form of maps drawn on pieces of bark, on sand or on paper (if there was any available).

The history of maps began with two-dimensional drawings. Although modern graphics allow the construction of multidimensional maps, most maps are still drawn on a surface. The earliest maps represented the sky, rather than the earth. The first maps were created or written on stone. That was how the tribes marked the map of their area. But the map as we know it was created not so long ago. In the early Middle Ages, cartography fell into decline. The question of the shape of the Earth ceased to be important for the philosophy of that time, and many people returned to the belief that the Earth was flat. In the middle of the 15th century, the era of great geographical discoveries began, so the interest in cartography increased. The important achievements of Pre-Columbian cartography include the Fra Mauro map of 1459 (this map, in a sense, illustrated the concept of a flat Earth) and the Erdapfel, the first terrestrial globe produced by the German geographer Martin Behaim. Columbus’s discovery of America in 1492 brought new advances in cartography — a whole new continent to explore and depict. The outlines of the American continent became clear by the 1530s. The invention of printing helped greatly in the development of cartography. The next revolution in cartography was the invention of the world maps by Gerardus Mercator and Abraham Ortelius. At the same time, Mercator had to create cartography as a science: he developed the theory of map projections and a symbol system.