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Art donation to Rutgers includes maps of Hungary
Aluminium case to be supplied for the 1507 Waldseemüller map
Early atlases of Birmingham, Alabama to be scanned
A review of Old World Auctions
Exhibition of maps of Bulgaria opens
Harvard University announces a map donation
The Ratzer map of New York city up for auction
Dallas's founding cartographic document in need of repair
The earliest jigsaw puzzles?
'Exploring the Southland' exhibition opens in Hobart
A new book from the University of Chicago Press
Connecticut library receives bequest of a rare wall-map
Brown University producing an online map catalogue
Maps from David Rumsey's collection now on Google Earth
Major exhibition about London maps opens at the British Library next week
Ann Arbor exhibit of maps from Shakespeare's time
University of Wisconsin-Madison to put early books and maps online
A new book about the mapmaker Moses Greenleaf - talk by the author 23 October
Further on the claims that the 1673 Marquette map is a hoax
Further dismantling of the Menzies 'thesis'
New price record for an atlas
First printed atlas for sale next week
Nolli plan of Rome on display in Atlanta
Exhibition about the Dutch discovery of western Australia
Large map of the Comstock Lode donated
A new, scholarly edition of Ptolemy's 'Geographia'
South Carolina to put 18th century property maps online
Talk and exhibition about the early name for Siam
Google, Wikipedia - and Battista Agnese
Delhi Archives to digitise their collections, including maps
Scanned Irish maps a treasure trove for genealogists
A new blog for Islamic cartography
Marie Tharp dies
Buffalo exhibit for the Dalai Lama's visit will include maps
Spanish scientists use early maps to test a damage-free sampling method
1697 Dutch charts of Australia 'discovered' - 20 years after being published!
New interactive US site links maps and street data
East West Cartographic acquires large geological map collection
Scans of rare maps to establish proof of ownership
$200,000 for Yale's Sterling Memorial Library
More on the LAC catalogue problems (see previous entry)
Perhaps map curators do still have their value
Celestial images at Penn State
More on the Boston Public Library's 'Journeys of the Imagination' exhibition
The 1637 map of Diss, Norfolk saved by its residents
What is involved in putting on a Lewis and Clark exhibition
Zebulon Pike's maps to be displayed in Colorado Springs
Maps of Dover, New Hampshire on display
'The Stories Behind Canada's Maps'
Dating maps from the wear of the block or plate
More on the Newberry purchase from the History Museum
Exhibit in Portland, Oregon
Is the 1673 Marquette map a Jesuit fake?
Has 'Fort Crevecoeur', Illinois been wrongly located?
Death of Cor Koeman
[away from the Internet 10-19 June - leading to delayed postings for that period]
The National Library of New Zealand puts maps online
Exhibition in Rome showing how Italy was perceived and reproduced from the
16th century onwards
Chicago - maps move across town
Wes Brown honoured for services to Denver Public Library
The Library of Congress puts up a website for its Los Angeles exhibit
A map used by Churchill in 1940 to help prepare for an invasion by Hitler?
Map Library at Indiana University to close?
Military Landscapes of 18th Century Scotland (PhD Studentship)
Map findings at the University of Tulsa
A 'dynamic' new book
David Thompson to be celebrated
Are the Chinese officially claiming to have discovered Australia?
'Mapping the White Mountains' exhibit at Harvard's Pusey Library
Scholarly fight-back against the Menzies myths
'Sea of Japan' or 'East Sea'?
Maps on exhibit in Corvallis, Oregon
US road maps, past and present
Death of Walter Ristow
Zheng He exhibition in Bangladesh
'The Geographic Revolution in Early America'
World maps at the Boston Public Library
Road survey of Westchester, N.Y. on display
Vulnerability of maps to theft recognised
Library of Congress online exhibition
The Norfolk town of Diss in 1637
Exhibition about the Dutch discovery of Australia
Latest 'news' on the 1418/1763 Chinese map
Mapping through time in Portland, Maine
Cartography: 'an art that did not know that it was going to be a science'
Missouri State Archives exhibition
Map exhibition in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina
A collector's view of map thefts
A measured look at the Vinland Map controversy
Florida maps on exhibit
Texas bird's-eye views on exhibit
Velasco Map a fake?
Only adventurous historians need apply
More on the Artimedorus map
Exhibition in Rome [posted 11 February]
"Chicago in Maps: 1612 to 2002"
Undersea looters use charts from the Archive of the Indies
Post D-Day maps used by the Allied Forces
Soleto Map a fake?
Appalachia maps displayed
Caribbean map exhibition
NOAA exhibition in February
Siamese maps exhibited
Yale to digitise its early maps
Maltese maps to be digitised
Unconvincing claim for a 1418 Chinese circumnavigation
'World's oldest map'? [again!]
More on Marie Tharp
A further appreciation of Marie Tharp (who died earlier this year) and her underseas
maps, based on a New York Times article and a news release from Columbia University. It focuses
on her professional relationships with Bruce Heezen and Maurice (Doc) Ewing. For the earlier entry see in the Archive under 23 August 2006
'The largest and most important collection of 19th- and 20th-century Hungarian
art outside of Central Europe will be acquired by the Jane Voorhees Zimmerli Art Museum
at Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, as a gift from the Salgo Trust for Education
... In addition to the art works, the gift includes a collection of 16th- to 19th- century maps
of Central Europe ...'. No details of the maps are given but they presumably focus on Hungary.
The Library of Congress has 'partnered with the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) to
design a hermetically sealed encasement for the 12-sheet 1507 Waldseemüller map. The encasement
is designed to provide optimum accessibility for the public while preserving and securing the
document. NIST will supervise the construction of the case, which will be turned over to the
Library in 2007. The Library will display the map in the fall of 2007 as part of its "New
Visitors’ Experience" exhibit'. Technical details are supplied of the case, which will be six
times larger than that for the Bill of Rights.
Birmingham Public Library’s Archives announces plans to
digitise various atlases including a volume containing 'the original maps and field notes of
the survey team that laid out Birmingham's streets in 1872.' Others to be scanned include the
Beers and Ellis Atlas of Birmingham (1887) and Baist's Property Atlas of Birmingham (1902).
The highlight of a two-week online
auction held by Old World Auctions, now based in Sedona, Arizona, was a rare map of the Red River region of
Louisiana, by Nicholas King. The rest of the piece is about the history of the firm and forthcoming lots. [Via <
http://www.maptheuniverse.com/?p=94 > The Map the Universe weblog].
'The "Europe for Bulgaria
in Dr. Simeon Simov's collection" exhibition gives information on what Bulgaria looked like
from ancient times until modernity'. Inspired by Bulgaria's EU accession, and opened by the
Prime Minister in the Central Military Club in Sofia on 18 December, it features maps collected
by Dr Simov over 40 years. [See also: December 19 <
http://standartnews.com/en/article.php?d=2006-12-19&article=2450 > 'Intelligence Officers
Bring Unique Maps to Bulgaria' (in Standart News), apparently giving a closing date of 14 January 2007.]
The announcement is made about the donation of the map collection, built up by the late
Bohdan Krawciw (1904-1975), 'a Ukrainian-born poet, journalist, literary critic, translator,
and nationalist', to Harvard Map Collection in 2005. Its coverage is of central and Eastern
Europe, with a focus on the Urkaine, and it includes the 1660 atlas by Guillaume Le Vasseur de
Beauplan. [See the earlier news story from Harvard College Library, 7 December, with three
illustrations, noting that an exhibition is planned for 2007: <
http://hcl.harvard.edu/news/2006/ukrainian_maps.html >; and 'Ukraine Maps Arrive at Harvard:
Valuable map collection documents historical and critical trends' by Firth M. McEachern in the
Harvard Crimson on 19 December: < http://www.thecrimson.com/article.aspx?ref=516525 >.
This refers to 'the collection of almost 900 maps thought to be worth hundreds of thousands of
dollars'. Nor was this the first donation: in 1978, the Krawciw family 'bequeathed 12,000 maps
to Harvard'.]
Background comment on the example of the Bernard Ratzer map of New York city (1767) being auctioned by
Christie's on 5 December.
About a printed pamphlet and map (10.3 x 16.9 inches) produced by Charles Fenton Mercer
in 1844, described as 'the first known record of the settlement and the name "Dallas" appearing
on a map.' It is considered the best example of the three known to survive. The General Land
Office will add it to reproductions of hundreds of historical maps, issued to fund its Adopt-a-Map
programme. The article is accompanied by a fuzzy image.
A temporary export bar until 26 January 2007 (with possible extension until 26
April) has been placed on a cabinet containing dissected maps used as teaching aids for King
George III's children. The Reviewing Committee on the Export of Works of Art and Objects of
Cultural Interest is seeking offers to purchase for £120,000 (excluding VAT). 'Jill Shefrin's
book Such Constant Affectionate Care: Lady Charlotte Finch - Royal Governess & the Children
of George III offers evidence that the cabinet contains the earliest surviving jigsaw
puzzles.' [See the full text for further details. For the outcome, see entry for 12 March 2007.]
'A
collection of 40 maps showing the growth of Australia's charted coastline is being exhibited at
the Carnegie Gallery in Hobart ... The exhibit, Exploring the Southland, features maps from the
collection of Dr Bernard Lamprell, who settled in Tasmania in 1967.' The exhibition closes on 6
January 2007.
Based on a previous series of Kenneth
Nebenzahl, Jr., Lectures in the History of Cartography, this features contributions by five scholars,
including the editor James R. Akerman. [Via The
Map Room weblog].
MAGIC, part of the
University of Connecticut Libraries, in Storrs, received an example of Clark and Tackabury's
'Topographic Map of the State of Connecticut' (1859), as a gift from Mrs. Diana Levy, in honour
of her husband, Colonel Levy. It measures 6 feet by 4, and is known from just three other
examples. You can view it via the Earth Resource Mapping plugin.
About two maps from a 'collection of more than
1,000 rare maps that librarians are in the process of cataloging online ... many dating back
100 years or more ... So far, 98 percent of the maps have been catalogued online in the Brown
system, called Josiah, as well as on WorldCAT, a worldwide database where libraries can upload
their collections. The university plans to digitize the maps so that Internet users can view
them online ... A reception is planned this spring to celebrate the collection, which will be
available for viewing inside the library, though the maps are not available to be checked out.'
There has been
massive publicity for the addition of sixteen maps from the Rumsey Collection on Google Earth.
Note from Philip Hoehn: 'To view the maps, download the latest version of Google Earth (PC and Mac versions), then go
to Layers/Featured Content/Rumsey Historical Maps. To enable transparency of the historic map
layers, click on the Rumsey Historical Maps folder when viewing a map and a slider bar will
appear that will adjust transparency for comparison of old and new maps images. Additional
maps will be added in the coming months'. See also Frank Taylor's <
http://www.gearthblog.com/blog/archives/2006/11/four_new_featured_go.html >
Google Earth Blog for further technical notes.
A preview (focussing on the East End of London) of the British Library's forthcoming
free exhibition, 'London: A Life in Maps', due to open on 24 November 2006 and to run until 4
March 2007. 'Three quarters of the exhibits have never been seen in public'. The article's
final page lists 13 'notable exhibits'. 40 of the 190 exhibits are featured in an Online
Gallery . [See a note by Peter Barber on The Map Room blog, 17 November, and a discursive commentary, <
http://www.newstatesman.com/200611200032 > 'City of illusions', by Peter Ackroyd in the New Statesman
, '20 November' (but posted 17 November). Podcasts are promised, there is a link to videos, and the
exhibit has its own < http://britishlibrary.typepad.co.uk/londoninmaps/ > Blog].
A note on the exhibition,
'Shakespeare's World in Maps', at the University of Michigan's Clements Library. Opened on
October 2nd, this runs until December 22.
A Press Release from the
university describes how access will be provided to 'hundreds of thousands of public and
historical books and documents' from the collections of the university and the Wisconsin
Historical Society. All selected material will be out of copyright. It will include 'high use
collections, such as...maps'.
Walter Macdougall,
professor emeritus at the University of Maine, has issued Settling the Maine Wilderness: Moses Greenleaf, His Maps and
His Household of Faith, 1777-1834 (Portland, Maine: University of Southern Maine and the Osher Map Library). The blurb
notes that 'Macdougall’s book is a recognition of Moses Greenleaf’s great achievements in mapping the Maine wilderness at
the very outset of its statehood in 1820'. 'Macdougall will talk about the book at 6:30 p.m. Monday, Oct. 23, at the Bangor
Public Library'. [See also October 23 < http://bangordailynews.com/news/t/lifestyle.aspx?articleid=142118&zoneid=14 >
'Maps of Maine displayed in biography of Moses Greenleaf' (by Ardeana Hamlin in the Bangor Daily News)]
A message to the MapHist
list from Carl J. Weber draws attention to a range of articles on his website and to the response to his revisionism. See
Archive entry under 11 June 2006.
Six articles
have been added to the 1421exposed.com
site, by historians of cartography and others. See earlier under 26 & 24 April 2006. [Via
MapHist ].
The 1477 Bologna edition of Ptolemy's
Geographia, the first printed atlas, fetched £2.1 million ($3.9 million) at the second part of
the Wardington sale at Sotheby's on 10 October 2006. This is a new price record for an atlas.
It was bought by Bernard Shapero on behalf of an unnamed client.
Coverage of the sale, at Sotheby's in London next week (10 October
2006), of the second part of the atlas collection created by Lord Wardington has focussed on
his coloured copy of the first printed atlas, the 1477 Bologna edition of Ptolemy's Geographia.
Only one other privately-owned copy is known. The map illustrated and discussed is that of the
British Isles, presumably reflecting the Sotheby's press release.
'The Michael C. Carlos Museum at Emory
University [Atlanta] presents the exhibit 'Discovering Rome: Maps and Monuments of the Eternal
City' ... At the center of the exhibition will be Giambattista Nolli’s Great Map of 1748, a
landmark in the history of topography, enabling viewers to explore the city as a whole and to
understand how the individual monuments fit within their urban context.' The exhibition opened
on 23 September 2006 and runs to 14 January 2007.
An interview with Professor Ted Snell, Dean of Art, about the exhibition
'Western Edge', mainly concerned with the Dutch discovery of Australia's west coast, opening at
the John Curtin Gallery, Curtin University
of Technology, Perth on 6 October and running to 8 December 2006. 'The earliest map on
display in the exhibition was printed in 1515, based on a chart believed to have been drawn in
1483 and based on a record from 1459 ... The exhibition contains about 70 pieces, including
maps, books and journals. The rare and original documents were drawn from the extensive private
collections of WA businessmen Jock Clough and Kerry Stokes.'
A 1900 manuscript map of the Comstock Lode has been
donated by Kinross Gold USA to the W.M. Keck Earth Science and Mineral Engineering Museum at
the < http://www.mines.unr.edu/mackay/ > Mackay School of Earth Sciences
Engineering at the University of Nevada, Reno. 'The map is 5-ft tall and 12-ft long (1.5 x
3.6 metres). It features all claims and mines from Gold Hill to northern Virginia City and
cross sections of the Belcher, Yellow Jacket, Hale and Norcross and the C. & C. Mines. It is
displayed at the top of the Mackay building's main staircase on the second floor.'
Announcing (with few relevant details) a new edition of Ptolemy's
'Geographia', produced by an international team of researchers led by Alfred Stückelberger and
Gerd Grasshoff, professors at the University of Berne. It is based on the exemplar in the Topkapi
Museum, Istanbul, described as 'possibly the oldest existing copy'. 'Using this manuscript and
other copies from the Vatican, Venice, Florence and Paris they have produced the first complete
modern edition of the Greek original, and the first full German translation ... The researchers
even managed to correct some of the mistakes in the old versions. Not surprisingly, numerous
errors had crept in over the centuries.' For further details about the project and the new
publication see the Ptolemaios-Forschungsstelle
site, and also the note on the Web Projects page of Map History. A
message to the MapHist list from Markus
Oehrli, 4 October, explained how the 1000 corrected coordinates were achieved.
'The next big
project at < http://www.state.sc.us/scdah/ > Archives and History is
putting online 24,000 property maps from 1731-1775' [no details given].
The mid-15th century Fra Mauro map (not usually described as
'tattered') provided the collector Thavatchai Tangsirivanich with evidence that the early name
for Siam (and apparently its capital) was Scierno [though the article points out that a
variant of this was already in Hobson-Jobson's dictionary]. 'Thavatchai Tangsirivanich
will reveal his journey to discover "Scierno" at the launch of "Ayutthaya in European Maps"
hosted by The Association of Thai Archives and the National Archives, on Monday [presumably 11
September] at the National Archives' main auditorium. An exhibition entitled "Decoding The Fra
Mauro Map" will be displayed.' See also a later, illustrated piece (25 September 2006) by Chris
Baker, with the sub-title, 'Meticulous research by an amateur map collector is encouraging
historians to peer backwards in time in the hope of adding detail and colour to the scanty
image we have of the ancient capital of Ayutthaya', in the <
http://www.bangkokpost.com/Outlook/25Sep2006_out01.php > Bangkok Post.
In the context of an analysis of how people
search (e.g. 42% click on Google's first result and 90% select from the first group of ten) the
article examines the dominant role of Wikipedia, the free, user-compiled, encyclopedia. It
reports the findings of Patrick Ross, of the Center for the Study of Digital Property, whose
interest in early maps led him to check the entries for Vinland and Battista Agnese. [Part of
the text also available via MapHist].
The Delhi Archives department is about
to issue a tender for a four-year digitisation project, covering records, maps, photographs and
portraits, dating back to 1785. It is claimed that this will be the first such project in India.
The Irish Government appropriately
chose Boston, "the capital of Irish America", to launch this "treasure trove" for Irish
genealogists. 'For 5 euros a day, roughly $6.40, computer users can access visual images of
more than 30,000 maps of Irish localities dating back to 1824 ... [with] rich details about
19th century life in Irish neighborhoods: individual plots of land, cemeteries, schools,
hospitals, businesses, factories, wells - even trees and bushes are mapped out. "These maps
represent the world's first large-scale [historical] mapping of an entire country," said
Malachy McVeigh, senior operations manager at Ireland's Ordnance Survey Ireland...The survey
team painstakingly scanned the maps, most of them in storage at Trinity College, the National
Library of Ireland, and the Royal Irish Academy, all in Dublin. The maps span two eras, from
1824 to 1847 [i.e. 1829-42, at 1:10,650], and from 1888 to 1913 [at 1:2,500].' [Text also
available via the lismaps Archive for August 2006 [see messages from Francis Herbert with 'Irish' in the
title, which also provides the site's < http://www.irishhistoricmaps.ie/historic/ > address!].
Written by Tarek Kahlaoui, a PhD student at the University of Pennsylvania, Department of History of Art,
Islamic Cartography is an 'outlet
for my dissertation, in the writing process, titled: "The depiction of the Mediterranean in late Islamic
cartography: from the 13th to the 16th century"'. That modest statement disguises the significance of the
first major post: Islamic Cartography: A Bibliography of modern literature [covering so far the
letter 'A'] . The next post offered Links to Photos of Islamic Cartography. A blog to watch. [Via The Map Room weblog].
'Marie Tharp, a pathbreaking oceanographic cartographer
at the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, co-creator of the first global map of the ocean floor
and co-discoverer of the central rift valley that runs through the Mid-Atlantic Ridge died
Wednesday August 23 in Nyack Hospital. She was 86'. Her first map of the North Atlantic (with
Bruce Heezen) dates from 1959. [Via Lismaps]. And: < http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/california/la-me-tharp4sep04,1,2811531.story?coll=la-headlines-pe-california&ctrack=1&cset=true
> 'Marie Tharp, 86; Pioneering Maps Altered Views on Seafloor Geology' (by Valerie J. Nelson in the Los Angeles Times, 4 September 2006).
See also 'Mountains under the sea: Marie Tharp's maps of the ocean floor shed light on the
theory of continental drift' (David M. Lawrence - Mercator's World 4:6, 1999)
During
September there will be an exhibition at the University at Buffalo, State University of New
York, Special Collections Research Room, 420 Capen Hall, North Campus. 'Discovering Tibet: The
Development of Western Notions of Central Asia and Tibet' will feature maps loaned by Richard
V. and Susan B. Lee. These will range 'from a 16th-century woodblock map of Asia, the first of
the continent, to 17th-century Dutch maps showing roads used for the north-south Silk Road
commerce, to 19th-century maps of increasing detail as travelers explored the region'.
A team of
scientists from the Department of Painting at the University of Granada, led by
professor Teresa Espejo, has 'designed a vanguard analytical method based on two techniques:
high-resolution liquid chromatography and capillary electrophoresis'. Dr José Luis Vílchez
explained that they have replaced "the sample taking system based on the scalpel by another
which does not damage the preservation of the document and consists of using microbrushes with
the appropriate solvents"'. The method was tested on Arab manuscripts and on 16th-19th century
maps from the Royal Chancellery of Granada, which had been used as legal evidence.
"They
languished unrecognised in the vaults of the National Library of Australia for almost a
century. Now two hand-drawn charts have been identified as 17th-century originals - and are
possibly the oldest manuscript maps of any part of Australia to be held in Australian hands.
The charts - both named "The South Land explored by Willem de Vlamingh in January and February
1697" - were finally uncovered by Martin Woods, the museum's map curator...The charts were
among 1200 maps donated to the library in 1911 by Edward Augustus Petherick, an avid
collector". EXCEPT, as the piece explains: "they were thought to be printed copies until 1981,
when they were identified as hand-drawn originals by a visiting Dutch expert, Gunter Schilder,
who was writing a history of the Vlamingh voyage". See Günter Schilder, Voyage to the Great
South Land. Willem de Vlamingh 1696-1697 (Sydney: Royal Australian Historical Society, 1985).
[Via < http://www.maptheuniverse.com/?p=30 > The Map the Universe weblog].
Historic Map Works, based in Maine, specialise in what they
call Residential Genealogy. The new website offers map images enlargeable to high resolution, with the option
to buy an online version. So far the coverage is of New York City and Portland, Maine, and the
eight states between Maryland and Maine. The aim is to include 650 atlases, 35,000 maps, and
300 directories (all the property of the founder, Charles Carpenter). This will offer a
searchable collection of '19th and early 20th century American city, town and county maps,
linked to volumes of information about who lived where when'. 'The map collection is linked
with modern mapping technology that references existing street names and numbers. By simply
typing in an address, users can follow the progression of buildings and neighborhoods through
time - in some cases up to 250 years.' [See a later piece, 5 November 2006, <
http://business.bostonherald.com/businessNews/view.bg?articleid=165711&format=&page=1 >
'Mapping out business: Maine co. is like MapQuest on a time machine', by Jay Fitzgerald in the
'Boston Herald'].
'East View Cartographic (EVC)
has made an exciting acquisition of geological maps and atlases with a truly global scope. This
collection, purchased from the Telberg Geological Map Service, contains thousands of unique
items from regions such as China, Eastern Europe, Asia, Africa, and Latin America. The Telberg
family built this collection by establishing supply relationships with virtually every
geological mapping authority in the world.' The maps evidently date from the past few decades,
with Chinese maps post-Cultural Revolution, but also African material from the colonial period.
More about William Reese and the Yale donation (see the story
below). The money will be partly used to 'create a full electronic catalog of the collection,
with digitized versions of many of the most valuable maps. The collection holds about 15,000
maps printed before 1850, showing early images of New England, America and North America. By
scanning its rarest maps, Yale will have an electronic record of each map, with its unique
stains, coloring and creases. If a map is stolen and turns up on the market, Yale then has a
picture to compare it to and prove ownership. Digitizing the rarest maps will cut down on the
number of people handling the maps while also allowing more people to study them - from a
computer.' [The full text also available via ExLibris].
'William Reese, President of William Reese Company, a firm
dealing in rare books and manuscripts in New Haven, has donated $100,000 to the Yale University
Library to support the future of the Map Collection in Sterling Memorial Library..."Over the
past year, in the wake of the apprehension of a thief who has now pled guilty to stealing maps
both from the Beinecke Library and the Map Collection, I have worked with the Library to
inventory the collections and to advise on the many issues which have arisen in the wake of
those thefts. While we have come to realize that the Map Collection is facing many challenges,
I am convinced that, with sufficient nourishment, the remarkable collections and dedicated core
of staff can blossom into a vital research center of the first rank."' University Librarian,
Alice Prochaska, stated that she will match his gift 'with funds reallocated from the Library's
own budget. With Mr. Reese's advice and support, the Library will now begin to raise
additional significant funding. We will be seeking to endow the position of Map Curator, to
support the creation of a full electronic catalog with digitized versions of the holdings of
this great collection, and to support and extend the high-powered consultative service in
Geospatial Information Systems (GIS) that the staff provide'.
'If anything shows
how Library and Archives Canada needs to upgrade its cataloguing systems, it could be the fact
that staff realized that they had not one but two originals of a valuable 16th-century map only
when they read about it on July 27 in The Globe and Mail..."The Forlani in the national
archives was a map that was well known," says Conrad Heidenreich, York University professor
emeritus of historical geography. "My sense is that at Library and Archives Canada, there's no
corporate memory"..."I had no trouble in the old days working with the archives, because if I
had a problem, I could ask Ed [retired maps curator Ed Dahl]," Heidenreich says. "The new
people there are technicians. They're less well informed."...Researchers might assume that
because Library and Archives Canada is now together as an institution, they should search by
clicking on "National Library collection" in the AMICUS database. Nothing explains that they
must click instead on the entire AMICUS database, which then trolls library holdings across the
country before it coughs up what's at the former National Archives.'
In May, LAC's cartography section
publicly expressed interest in acquiring an example of the printed Forlani world map of 1562,
one of the first to name 'Canada'. It was coming up for auction in Paris, and expected to make
around $200,000. LAC sought private sponsorship for the purchase, pulling out shortly before
the sale when it was realized they already had the 1560 state of the map. "The really
embarrassing thing is some staff seemed unaware that the archives also already owned the 1562
version, the very one that was going up for auction. In fact, this 1562 Forlani was acquired by
the archives in 1981, and exhibited as one of the nation's gems the very next year. It is also
described in a catalogue, Treasures of the National Map Collection. And both Forlani maps are
in LAC's current web catalogue -- but the LAC's confusing cataloguing system is part of the
problem." Terry Cook, a retired senior manager at the archives, explained that "part of LAC's problems are that it has shifted cultures, from one
based on specialized curators who knew their collections in depth, to a more open, democratized
strategy. 'The new approach is to put more information on the Web, and to appeal to a vaster
audience so ordinary people can research genealogy or aboriginal rights'." See an earlier posting about this map and the LAC to MapHist
on 21 May 2006].
The
exhibition at the Palmer Museum of Art, Pennsylvania State University runs until 17 September 2006. See
also < http://www.collegian.psu.edu/archive/2006/07/07-13-06tdc/07-13-06darts-07.asp >
"'Old maps' chart new exhibit" (by Travis Larchuk in the Digital Collegian)
A run-down of some of the items in 'Journeys of the Imagination', an exhibition from
the Cartographic Collections of the Norman B. Leventhal Map Center at the Boston Public
Library, which continues until August 18. [See under 2 April 2006 for an earlier entry.]
Norfolk Record
Office succeeded in acquiring the map by William Tampon (1637) - 'almost as big as a double
bed' - for over £10,000, after townsfolk raised a four-figure sum. It will eventually be put on
public display. [See original entry for 20 March 2006].
About the seven years that the staff at the Missouri Historical Society
spent putting together 'Lewis & Clark: The National Bicentennial Exhibition', running at
National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution, from May to September 11. "Most
captivating are the maps. It is interesting to see how far off some of Jefferson's expectations
about the West were. It is even more interesting to see how Clark's maps changed as the
expedition continued. One display explains how American Indians made maps based on what the
people did with the land, not the land itself. Clark, who collected about 100 American Indian
maps, then drew his own based partly on that research and partly on his own observation. These
maps are on the walls of the museum as well as in several books and interactive displays."
Discussing the high security surrounding the return from the National Archives of Zebulon Pike
documents including maps, for a bicentenary exhibition at the Colorado Springs Pioneers Museum.
This opens 'on or around July 14' [such is the level of security] for five weeks.
Four rolled-up maps of Dover and Strafford County (1831-70), the earliest being a manuscript wall-map of the Cocheco cotton mill, have been restored and will be on display from 7 July to
the end of August at the library in Dover, New Hampshire.
"Co-published by les Éditions du Septentrion and Library and Archives Canada, this
book is the first history of Canadian cartography to come out in the last 30 years. Researched
and written by Senior Archivist Jeffrey S. Murray, Terra Nostra draws on the world's largest
and most important collection of early maps relating to Canada-the cartographic holdings of
Library and Archives Canada". ISBN: 0-660-19496-1 (English), 0-660-97054-6 (French).
'The discovery that the wood blocks and metal plates used for printmaking deteriorate at a clock-
like rate means that we can now use the prints as a "print clock" for determining the date a work was
printed'. This claim comes from Blair Hedges, professor of biology at Penn State in a paper due to be
published in the Proceedings of the Royal Society A: Mathematical, Physical, and Engineering Sciences. The
illustrated summary features the woodcut map of Jamaica from Bordone's Isolario (1528). Although
not specifically concerned with maps, Hedges (a collector of < http://evo.bio.psu.edu/caribmap/
> Caribbean maps) also used the works of Porcacchi and Magini for his copperplate
examples. Significantly, 'Hedges' analyses also show that changes in print quality were caused by aging of
the wood and copper alone, not by the wear and tear of the printing process itself or the number of times
an impression was made with a particular block or plate'. See also a press release from EurekAlert, and a
short summary by Tracy Staedter (21 June) in the Scientific American.com <
http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?chanID=sa003&articleID=0001D8A6-9665-1498-927983414B7F4945 >. Greg
Miller's < http://sciencenow.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/2006/621/4 > 'A New Hook for Dating
Books' (21 June) in Science Magazine provides more information, including FAQs, a link to the
full 19-page, pdf < http://evo.bio.psu.edu/hedgeslab/Publications/PDF-files/176.pdf >
article, and further links, e.g.: < http://evo.bio.psu.edu/printclock/ >. More about Hedges's method and
< http://evolution.berkeley.edu/evosite/evo101/IIE1cMolecularclocks.shtml > Molecular clock
basics. See also this
and other postings on ExLibris in July 2006; and < http://www.philly.com/mld/philly/15107277.htm
> 'A biologist turns a page. A Penn State professor, stepping out of the lab, has developed a method to
date old prints and books. Some scholars challenge it', by Tom Avril in the Philadelphia Enquirer (24
July).
More information on the special sale to the Newberry Library of
material from the Chicago History Museum, with Robert Karrow discussing some of the acquired
maps and Sam Plourd, the museum's director of collections, giving details of the disposals.
[For an earlier account see under 31 May 2006]. [A further update note, 31 October 2006: to see
the maps in question go to the Newberry Library Cartographic Catalog, select 'Search' and, under 'Search for the
phrase', enter: Purchased from the Chicago Historical Society, 2005].
Running from 24 June to 20 August 2006, the exhibit in
the Multnomah County Library, Portland, Oregon, includes "Atlas Major (1662), by Joan
Blaeu...the Nuremberg Chronicle (1493)...important early maps and documents of Oregon". See the announcement on ExLibris - though you may have to re-format the text elsewhere in order to read it. The shorter
version on the Library's < http://www.multcolib.org/events/collins/" > site omits mention of the map items.
Carl Weber, professor of
history and the humanities at DeVry Institute in Chicago, claims that the hand-drawn Marquette
map of 1673, which accurately details the Illinois' curving course, is "a historical fraud".
His findings, announced at the Newberry Library last September, are based on the fact that the
map contains information about the Illinois that didn't appear on other early
exploration maps until decades later. "The likelihood of Marquette going up the (Illinois)
river with Joliet is very slim." He believes that the map "supposedly discovered in 1844 among
documents stored and virtually forgotten in a Jesuit mission in Canada - was created and forged
with Marquette's signature by the Jesuit Order to strengthen its political position in France
and The Vatican."
A second revisionist piece in the same issue, this time relaying the theories of amateur historians Marty and Bruce Fischer of Macomb. They claim that 'Fort Crevecoeur', where the La Salle and Tonti expedition of 1680 was aborted, was actually at Beardstown and not Peoria. Their evidence, partly based on 'two dozen maps of the early French era', will 'force historians to rewrite the history of the first European settlements in Illinois.' See also 'Historians stake claim in Beardstown' by Michael Smothers in the State Journal Register, 19 June 2006, including criticism of the theory < http://www.sj-r.com/sections/news/stories/88877.asp >
Born in 1918, Cor Koeman is best known for the monumental Atlantes Neerlandici but his contributions to the history of (particularly) Dutch mapmaking were wide-ranging and significant. No doubt obituaries and bibliographies will appear in the leading map journals, as a tribute to one of the leading figures in the history of cartography.
"The Alexander Turnbull Library has linked some 240 images of historical New Zealand maps from
its collections to the < http://nlnzcat.natlib.govt.nz > National Library Catalogue". They are low
resolution but the library is 'working towards' providing high resolution online, although those can be purchased. The Turnbull
should be encouraged to do that; anything less is of marginal use. See the press release for the complicated access instructions.
There are also 64 map images on their Timeframes page.
The exhibition running from 2 June to 20 September 2006
at the Vittoriano monument in Rome, includes 'several maps of cities and military routes as
well as geological maps presenting the physical composition of our country's soil. In
particular, the Environmental protection agency has lent to the exhibition, the 18th century
'first geological map of Italy including earthquakes", of which only another copy exists and is
at the British Museum in London.'
The Chicago History Museum, having decided to dispose of 1000 maps, allowed
the Newberry Library to make a private offer. Nearly 400 maps were selected, including 'two very sought-after
maps of Texas, including a large and very uncommon 1857 edition of DeCordova's map, and six manuscript maps,
among them a map of Newfoundland from about 1675 and another of the <
http://www.newberry.org/collections/NewAcq2005.html > Ohio Valley from the 1790s' [whose thumbnail is on a
page with other recent map acquisitions]. [For a later piece see under 19 June 2006].
About Wes Brown, a well-known figure in the
world of early maps, who is being honoured on 14 June with a reception at the Central Denver
Public Library. He has been named as the 2006 Eleanor Gehres Award Winner for outstanding
volunteer service to the Denver Public Library. He has given many maps to the library, which
now claims to be the best in the West. As often happens with map fanatics, his wife has had to ban maps from the living room.
'"Los Angeles Mapped," a new exhibition at the Ira Gershwin Gallery on
the second floor of the Walt Disney Concert Hall, features about two dozen maps from 1639 to
1991 (and a video loop of Google Earth in action) that serve as historical timelines and
storybooks'. The exhibit, which had opened on 28 January, runs through January 2007. The
curator, Sam Brylawski, describes some of the exhibits. What is not made clear is that the
material comes from the Library of Congress. The accompanying online version, with high resolution images
of the 23 items, was mounted in late April.
The sheet of the one-inch Ordnance Survey map of England shows Westerham, Kent, near Churchill's home at
Chartwell. A note on the back says that it was 'reputedly used in 1940 in connection with the
defence of SE England'. It claims that it 'was used by Churchill at "Tall Trees"' [as yet
unidentified]. An arrow on the map points to 'Charts Edge', about a mile south-east of Westerham. The map is to be sold by Shropshire auctioneer Mullock Madeley at
Ludlow Racecourse on June 7th.
The Map Library is one of four Indiana University
campus libraries threatened with imminent closure. However, protests are making the
administration review the decision. Much of the piece is about this one library. Kelly Caylor,
professor of ecohydrology, said that the library was 'critical to the daily activity of (his)
discipline', and grad student Todd Lindley commented, 'Removing the map library - and hence,
the maps - will eradicate a very valuable teaching resource from our department and campus.
For geographers, removing the map library from the building is like removing a projector from
an electronic classroom'.
Under the heartening heading 'Research called more important than sticker
price', it continues: 'This historian and that librarian do not want to know how much these old
jewels of maps are worth. If it is millions, a far-off insurance company would dictate a vault,
perhaps, and white gloves for handling. Or worse, no touching at all.What is the point, ask
librarian I. Marc Carlson and history graduate student Mark Dolph. Why have maps that tell
stories if no one can pull them out and decipher them?' Dolph has been finding important
uncatalogued maps in the McFarlin Library and will add the details to the existing webpage.
Further evidence for my contention that the best place to find unrecognised material is in a
public collection.
"David Thompson, one of Canada’s greatest unsung heroes, is finally
getting the recognition he deserves, even if it is nearly 150 years too late. The writer,
naturalist, explorer, fur trader, surveyor and mapmaker is the subject of the upcoming North
American David Thompson Bicentennials Initiative that will span three years and include
numerous events throughout North America and England". Jack Nisbet, author of The Mapmaker’s
Eye: David Thompson on the Columbia Plateau, 1800-1812 and Sources of the River:
Tracking David Thompson Across Western North America, will be talking at the Canmore Museum
and Geoscience Centre (Alberta, Canada) on May 3.
One aspect of genuine interest in the
Menzies/Liu Gang affair is the official Chinese attitude to claims that Zheng He reached
Australia in the 15th century. Geoff Wade shows that, contrary to earlier reports, this has and
is happening - though it is not necessarily the formal official line.
"1421
Exposed, which will be officially launched on May 1, is a web site put together by
academics and researchers to combat Gavin Menzies’s theory that the Chinese discovered the
world in the 15th century, and, in particular, to refute the authenticity of Liu Gang’s
purported 1418 map of the world. Via MapHist." [I had given up reading about the fictions of
Menzies and his cohorts, but this deserves to be highlighted. The site, even if not yet
complete, is already worth a look]
"What's in a name? Quite a lot when it comes to fights between South Korea and Japan
over some tiny islands, the body of water that separates the wrangling neighbours and features
deep beneath that sea. The most recent spat is over a Japanese plan to conduct a nautical
survey near a set of desolate islets that both countries claim. Koreans call them Tokto,
Japanese call them Takeshima." South Korean is objecting to the use of 'Sea of Japan',
preferring 'East Sea' instead. For a cartographic analysis from the Japanese side, see 'Changing
in the Name of the "Japan Sea"'.
An extended, entertainly written piece, relating US road maps of the past, from Andrew McNally
II in 1907, to their online descendants. The interviewees include Jim Akerman and Kenneth
Nebenzahl. < http://www.maproomblog.com/2006/04/the_new_yorker_on_road_maps_and_directions.php > The Map Room weblog, with additional comments from Cartography blog].
Personal and official reminiscences of Dr. Walter W. Ristow, former chief of the Geography
and Map Division of the Library of Congress (1968-78), who died on April 3, 2006, aged 97. The
Walter W. Ristow Fund was set up to support research and writing about the cartographic
collections of the Library of Congress. [Earlier announcements and obituaries (from April
4) can be retrieved via the MapHist Archive].
About an exhibition, at
the Bangladesh National Museum, Shahbagh, from 3-15 April. It celebrates the remarkable voyages
of Zheng He and has been mounted by the Chinese embassy. There is no reference to the
1418/1763 map [see under March 18, 2006].
About 'The Geographic Revolution in Early America: Maps, Literacy and
National Identity' by Martin Brückner, associate professor of English [published by the
University of North Carolina Press in February]. 'Brückner focuses on the effects of geography
as a form of literature and how a geographically literate population shaped early American
history...Geography books
and maps were very popular, and textbooks played an important role and taught many Americans
not only about the land but also how to read and write.'
An
exhibition of World Maps from the Cartographic Collections of the Norman B. Leventhal Map
Center at the Boston Public Library, 21 March-18 August 2006; from the 15th century to the
present day; there will be an exhibition catalogue, and, in May, a 'virtual tour' is due to be
added; for a sample view of the display see a page on Flickr; see also a
further description from < http://www.wfsb.com/Global/story.asp?S=4763282 >World Now (13 April?); and the entry for 5 July 2006.
A 13-foot MS map by Joseph Mangin, a well-known New York
surveyor, c. 1800, of the Boston Post Road corridor from Mamaroneck to Port Chester. It was
commissioned by the Westchester Turnpike Co. The map, owned by High Ridge Books in Larchmont,
will be on display at the Knapp House in Rye throughout April.
Including the following comment: 'According to the library, the most serious thefts are the
carefully targeted removal of antique maps and plates from rare books by professional thieves'.
Divided into Surveying, GIS, Cartography, Geodesy, and featuring material from other
collections as well, this comprises mostly recent thematic maps (including David Woodward's
'Cultural Map of Wisconsin'), but starts with George Washington's farm through time - a
reflection of a physical exhibition in the James Madison Building until January 6, 2007,
clebrating a 30-year partnership with the American Congress on Surveying and Mapping.
A campaign 'to raise
thousands of pounds' to enable Norfolk Record Office to acquire the map of Diss, hand-drawn on
six sheepskins in 1637. [See entry of 4 July 2006 for the happy outcome].
The exhibition, 'First sight: the Dutch mapping of Australia 1606-1697' (to run until 4th
June at the < http://www.atmitchell.com/Events/exhibitions/2006/firstsight/about.cfm > State Library of New South Wales), focussing on the 'Hartog Plate', which
recorded the arrival of the Eendracht in 1616. The exhibition includes maps.