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Map by Abraham Lincoln

• [Undated but viewed December 30 as a 'News Story'] < http://newpsm.profsurv.com/newpsm/news.php#51 > 'Lincoln's 1835 survey donated' (unsigned article in the Professional Surveyor Magazine - a single sheet survey done by Abraham Lincoln for John Kennedy Kincaid of property between Athens and New Salem, Illinois in 1835. It was donated 'recently' by Margaret Kincaid to the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum in Springfield).

The Chinese collect maps


• December 29. < http://english.people.com.cn/200512/29/eng20051229_231507.html > 'Chinese keen on collecting ancient maps' (in the People's Daily Online - 'Tens of thousands of people across China now involve in map collection, but only several hundreds are really enthusiastic about it').

Vinland Map report


• December 20 [posted on the MapHist site, 27 December]. 'Report on the Assessment and Survey of the Condition and Technique of the Vinland Map and the Bindings of the Tartar Relation and Speculum Historiale' (by René Larsen & Dorte V. Poulsen, The Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts, School of Conservation and Marie Vest, The Royal Library, Denmark - a 28-page pdf article; the last half comprises scientific tables; 'Conclusions', to a discussion which includes the question of the map's authenticity, are on pp.11-13).

  Death of Alan M. Voorhees
  

• December 24. < http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/12/23/AR2005122301694.html > 'Pioneer in Highway Design Spread Talents Broadly' (by Matt Schudel in the Washington Post - an obituary note on Alan M. Voorhees, who died on December 18, aged 83; he had made important donations of early maps to the Library of Congress and to the Library of Virginia in Richmond, where the Alan M. and Nathalie P. Voorhees [annual] Lecture in the History of Cartography was established in 2004). [Text also available via the MapHist Archive ]. Another appreciation appeared in the New York Times: < http://www.nytimes.com/2006/01/01/national/01voorhees.html> 'Alan M. Voorhees Is Dead at 83; Designed Transportation Systems' (by Margalit Fox, 1 January 2006 - NB free registration required).

Map theft in Brunswick, Maine


• December 21. 'Theft Alert' (from ARLIS (Art Libraries Society Discussion List) - details, including link to a police photograph, of someone suspected of tearing out maps in the Bowdoin College Library, Brunswick, Maine. These were mostly 'turn-of-the-century government documents, depicting National Parks and other American territories').

Map of California Gold Rush town


• December 16. <http://www.orovillemr.com/Stories/0,1413,157~26686~3169458,00.html > 'Historic map shows how Oroville was laid out in 1855' (by Jim Lenhoff in the Oroville Mercury-Register - about the California Gold Rush town).

Reopening of New York Public Library's map room


• December 12. <http://www.nytimes.com/2005/12/12/nyregion/12library.html > 'Restoration Project Reveals Map Room's Vivid Palette' (by Glenn Collins in the New York Times - about the reopening of the New York Public Library's map room, after a $5 million restoration, on 15 December, now to be known as the Lionel Pincus and Princess Firyal Map Division).

Rhode Island map collection damaged in fire


• December 6. < http://www.boston.com/news/local/rhode_island/articles/2005/12/06/oldest_lending_librarys_artifacts_fall_victim_to_fire_bad_luck/ > 'Oldest lending library's artifacts fall victim to fire, bad luck' (Associated Press in the Boston Globe - about material, including maps, sent from the Redwood Library and Athenaeum in Newport, Rhode Island (founded 1747) to Artex Fine Art Services in Dedham, Mass., where they were drenched by firefighters on Friday 2 December. The 'Ezra Stile's 1758 series of Newport maps' was rescued. 'Some of the damaged books and maps are being frozen'). [A longer account, by Richard Salit, available via ExLibris, adds the comment that 'about 500 Colonial maps were soaked, including some documenting the country's westward expansion. The map of the Battle of Rhode Island...was damaged but did not go into the freezer truck', since it was not considered wet enough to need freezing].

Opening of Vienna Globe Museum


• December 1. Globe Museum in Vienna (from The Map Room blog - based on a post to MapHist by Zsolt Török about the museum's reopening).

Three map books


• December 1. < http://books.guardian.co.uk/departments/travel/story/0,6000,1653537,00.html > 'All mapped out: in a round-the-world trip enjoyed from the comfort of his armchair, Paul Hamilos takes in world cities, an 1889 map of London poverty and discovers the point where art and cartography meet.' (in Guardian Unlimited Travel - a review of three books, with a selection of map scans).

Wyoming maps


• November 28. < http://www.casperstartribune.net/articles/2005/11/28/news/casper/ca071ddbf9e99d3f872570c600267a bd.txt> 'Wyo maps delight Nic visitors' (by Barbara Nordby in the Casper Star Tribune - about the collection of Wyoming maps [no details given] donated by Jack Rosenthal to the Nicolaysen Art Museum in Casper - via < http://geocarta.blogspot.com/2005/11/maps-as-art-wyoming-man-donates-map.htmlGeoCarta > and The Map Room blogs).

Part of Google's $3 million for Library of Congress maps


• November 22. <http://mdn.mainichi-msn.co.jp/business/news/20051122p2g00m0bu010000c.html > 'Google donates $3 million to help scan more rare documents' (byline San Francisco but picked up via the Mainichi Daily News (Japan) - the money is being given to the Library of Congress; loosely based on their American Memory project, it will create digital copies of rare documents from around the world, particularly 'material from China, India and Islam'. Maps (unspecified) are mentioned). There are no doubt many pieces responding to this press release, see also (both of the same date): <http://www.cnn.com/2005/TECH/internet/11/22/google.world.library.reut/index.html > 'Google donates $3 million for world library' (Reuters), and < https://searchenginewatch.com/searchday/article.phpr/3565881 > 'World Digital Library Project Announced, Backed By Library Of Congress & Google' (by Danny Sullivan and Gary Price in Search Engine Watch).

Pittsburgh map made for the Penn family


• November 20. <http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/search/s_396337.html> 'Original Pittsburgh map sold to New Yorker' (by Jeremy Boren in the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review - about the purchase by W. Graham Arader III of a map, which was "made in 1784 by Col. George Woods, and was known as Penn's Charter of Pittsburgh. It's one of three hand-drawn maps made at the behest of Tench Francis, an agent for the William Penn family...The other two maps probably were destroyed in the Great Fire of 1845"; including a low resolution illustration - see also comment in The Map Room weblog).

'World's oldest map'?


• November 18. < http://news.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2005/11/18/wmap18.xml> 'Archaeologists find western world's oldest map' (by Hilary Clarke in the Daily Telegraph (London) - about the 'Soleto map' of the Salentine peninsula at the extreme south of Italy, discovered in 2003, claimed here to be "the oldest map of anywhere in the western world, dating from about 500 BC"); see also ‘A New Ancient Map? The Salentine peninsula in the 5th century BC’, and comment in The Map Room weblog). {See under February 1, 2006, for the claim that this map is a fake}.