Young Benjamin Lerman Coady, a seventh grade student from West Hartford Conn. spotted an error on a historical map of the 6th century Byzantine period. Immediately he went to a docent and was instructed to fill out a form, which he did.
“The front desk didn’t believe me,” he said. “I’m only a kid.”
But curator Helen Evans did, and after several months of review sent him an e-mail reading, in part, “You are, of course, correct about the boundaries of the Byzantine Empire under Justinian.”
The museum is now considering adding a second map to the display. It’s unclear how long the erroneous map had been on display, however, I want to draw your attention on the part where the curator took several months to review it. Am I the only one who finds that several months to examine, review and finally correct a 1400 year old map seems a bit extreme?
Imagine if someone had hidden Waldo on the map, how long would that have taken to find and correct? The little troll kid was offered a private tour of the museum as a reward. Hopefully they’ll have spellchecked the Exit signs by then.
