Mapparium: walk-through globe

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The intrepid travelers at Curious Expeditions recently visited Boston's Mapparium, a three-stories-tall glass globe that you can walk through. Built in 1935, the dome was designed so that visitors could examine a model of the Earth without the distortion of perspective that accompanies looking at a globe's exterior. Interestingly, the Mapparium is housed at the Christian Science Publishing Society's headquarters. From Curious Expeditions:

The Christian Science Monitor was a serious and respected publication, and every newspaper worth its snuff had to have an impressive headquarters. The Mary Baker Eddy Library in Boston is just that. In 1930, Boston architect Chester Lindsay Churchill was commissioned to design the new Christian Science Publishing Society headquarters. A beautiful lobby, dubbed "The Hall of Ideas", is complete with a grand water fountain, marble floors, and one-of-a-kind globe lamps (one showing constellations and the other showing the ocean's currents). But a grand entrance wasn't enough. After all, the New York Daily News building had that famous first class gigantic spinning globe. How could the Christian Science Monitor compete with such cosmopolitan worldliness? With an even better globe, of course.

A World Frozen in Time