Designer and antique maps dealer bring visual history to Memphis market

It's a joint venture that makes perfect sense to both: Lynda Mead Shea, interior designer and importer of French furniture and decorative arts, is uniting with internationally recognized antique maps specialist Murray Hudson to make his unique examples of visual history available to the Memphis market.

Shea has long been aware of the decorative potential of maps. The designer will have access to the best maps for display, and Hudson's examples benefit from a perfect setting in the rooms of her shop.

"I had always been interested in maps," Shea says. "When I visited Murray's shop in Halls, Tenn., and heard how he had become interested in their history, it inspired me to do this. We would like for him to have an ongoing presence here. It's a new relationship, unlike anything we've done before."

When Shea was chosen to redecorate the entrance rotunda of Bryant Hall at the University of Mississippi, she used maps of Paris and London along with a large specially commissioned globe to emphasize the university's role in international affairs.

An alumna of Ole Miss, Shea was born in New Orleans and grew up in Natchez, surrounded by important examples of 19th century architecture. When she opened her design business in 1984, antiques were a natural adjunct. Upon meeting Hudson, she realized they also shared an enthusiasm for the history of the South as expressed in regional maps.

Says Hudson: "We have maps from everywhere, but my particular interest is the development of the United States, particularly the South and West the steamboats, railroads, and earlier trails. I really love the 19th century best of all."

The dealer is widely known in map-collecting circles both in the United States and abroad through his participation in the field's most important show, the Miami International Map Fair, which is held in February. "It's the one show I still do every year because I see so many old friends and clients," says Hudson, who also belongs to map societies around the country.

According to Hudson, the new alliance came about when "Lynda and her son Peter came up during the summer and I showed them through the galleries. They were surprised to say the least," he says. "They thought about it and decided they would like for me to display my maps, globes and historical prints at her shop."

Walking around Shea's shop, Hudson points out one of his prize exhibits, a large 1812 map showing the expansion of the United States with Tennessee at the center. Among the more exotic examples on view is an 1815 map of Palestine showing the biblical areas of Galilee, Samaria and Judea.

Hudson deals in antique globes, as well, and he brought two library globes to the shop, one mounted on a wooden display stand, the other supported by an ornate cast-iron frame. In addition, the dealer has a number of historical prints as well as ephemera such as old stock certificates of local interest.

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Designer and antique maps dealer bring visual history to Memphis market