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First printed map of Cook's Australian discoveries coming up for sale in Sydney.

• May 3 [seen May 2] < http://www.smh.com.au/news/national/rare-cook-collection-to-be-sold/2008/05/02/1209235155773.html > 'Rare Cook collection to be sold' (by Steve Meacham in the Sydney Morning Herald).
        The second known example of what is described as the map that shows, "for the first time, the whole of Australia," is coming up for sale in Australia. It is known as the 'Banks Map', after Sir Joseph Banks, and was engraved in 1772, after Capt. James Cook returned to London from his first voyage. Banks paid for John Bayly to produce a private version (in 100 copies), which pre-empted the official Admiralty version by two years. The map forms part of a collection put together by by an American investment consultant, Robert Parks, described as 'the world's finest collection of Captain Cook memorabilia in private hands'. The collection will be offered 'in a fixed-price sale organised by Hordern House, the rare books specialist', in Sydney. The catalogue will appear at the end of the month. The map is likely to be valued in the region of Austr.$200,000. [See the rest of the article for further interesting details - via The Map Room weblog.]

Place-name battle for 'Persian Gulf': a book, an encyclopedia and a film


• April 29 < http://www.tehrantimes.com/index_View.asp?code=167448 > '"The Persian Gulf in Historical Maps" unveiled at Iranology Foundation' (in the Tehran Times).
        'The joint work of the Iranology Foundation and the Iranian Academy of Persian language and Literature entitled "The Persian Gulf in Historical Maps" was unveiled at the Iranology Foundation Sunday.' The various co-authors are quoted thus: '"Since the ancient times, those who knew the world have called ‘Persian Gulf’ the water passageway which separates the Arabian Peninsula from the land of Iran. ‘Sinus Persicus’, ‘Persischer Golf’, and ‘Golfo di Persia’ were some of the other terms used to refer to this passageway. But when Arab nationalists took power in Egypt in early 1950s, some began to use the term ‘Arab Gulf’. Iran has expressed its opposition since."... "The book tolerantly discusses all differing points of views, political propaganda and abuse of the term ‘Persian Gulf’"..."The atlas contains 40 maps from the pre-Islamic and early Islamic era; the atlas derives its content from a wide array of sources, the major one being Istakhri’s "Al- Masalik al-Mamalik" (The Book of Roads and Kingdoms)"... "We use of an old Islamic system for describing maps which had been forsaken for a long time. Actually we have tried to revive this old tradition"..."We selected 160 out of a total of 400 original maps. Our main criteria was the quality of the maps. The interesting point is that nowhere in the maps the name of the gulf could be found without the prefix ‘Persian’."' One of the authors is shown holding the book. It is not clear if the atlas has 40 or 160 maps. Is it permissible to wonder about the 240 that were not chosen, given that some earlier maps certainly use other terms to designate the Persian Gulf?

  There are two other items of related news:

  • < http://www.payvand.com/news/08/apr/1273.html > Iran is to compile a 'Persian Gulf Encyclopedia', to be compiled in eight volumes over the next four years. Researchers will be provided 'with historical maps of the region and articles to be used in the encyclopedia.'
  • < http://www.isna.ir/Main/NewsView.aspx?ID=News-1122432&Lang=E > 'Historical preview of Persian Gulf by an Iranian filmmaker' - 'Iranian filmmaker Mohammad Bozorgnia is due to start a film called "Silk Waterway" which looks into the historical record of Iranians’ possession of Persian Gulf. The screenplay has made use of historical documentary books which have described Persian Gulf and its situation centuries ago. The film depicts Iran and Persian Gulf in a thousand years ago with a story about an Iranian sea captain taking his precious merchandise to China.'

  A 1707 lead-mining map of Swaledale acquired by North Yorkshire County Records Office
  

• April 25. < http://www.northallertontimes.co.uk/northallerton-news/Old-map-puts-together-pieces.4018483.jp > 'Old map puts together pieces of our history' (in the Northallerton, Thirsk & Bedale Times).
        'The oldest known map of one of North Yorkshire's most beautiful valleys has been saved for posterity by the county council. The map depicting Swaledale was drawn in about 1707 to settle a dispute over the ownership of lead mining rights. It was bought by the council’s County Records Office, based in Northallerton, in February for £1,000 and will be kept in carefully controlled conditions ... The map reveals previously unavailable information about the size and location of settlements and access rights on the moor, including the right to graze stock, gather heather - which was used for thatch - and dig peat, which was used for fuel.' The original hand-drawn map measures 35 inches (89 cm) and is drawn on vellum. A copy has been presented to Swaledale Museum in Reeth, for public access.

Maps in the Stephen F. Austin Papers at the University of Texas to be conserved


• April 10. < http://www.utexas.edu/news/2008/04/10/cah_stephen_austin/ > 'Center for American History Awarded Grant for Preservation of Austin Papers'.
        'The Center for American History at The University of Texas at Austin has been awarded a "Save America's Treasures" federal grant to support the conservation and general preservation of the Stephen F. Austin Papers. The $173,930 grant was awarded by the National Park Service, which administers the prestigious "Save America's Treasures" program in collaboration with the President's Committee on the Arts and Humanities. It will fund a three-year conservation project to repair and stabilize the Austin Papers, considered the most significant collection documenting Anglo-American colonization in Texas ... The collection contains the personal and official records of Moses Austin and his son, Stephen F. Austin. The papers, which span the years 1676-1873, were created or gathered by Stephen F. Austin beginning in 1821, the year he initiated his colonization efforts in Texas ... Treasures in the papers include significant letters and maps'.

An Indian-made film about the genesis of the Survey of India


• April 10. < http://www.ndtv.com/convergence/ndtv/story.aspx?id=NEWEN20080046434 > 'Tracing the Arc: a film by Pankaj Butalia' (from NDTV.com).
        Commentary to a 21 minute film, which can be seen here < http://www.ndtv.com/convergence/ndtv/videopod/default.aspx?id=26627 >. It was apparently broadcast from New Delhi on April 10th. This describes the work of William Lambton and George Everest in tracing the Great Indian Arc of the Meridian, in the period 1802-43. 'It looks at what motivated the British to undertake such extensive mapping of India in the first place. To what extent were these maps necessary for expansion of the empire, and to what extent were these devices with which to access remote areas of India to see what they had to offer which was of commercial benefit to the East India Company are questions the film addresses.'

Wooden tablet from a Taiwanese temple (18th century?) maps a land dispute


• April 11 [seen 10th] < http://taiwanjournal.nat.gov.tw/ct.asp?CtNode=122&xItem=33690 > 'Exhibition showcases finest Ma Zu relics' (by Sandra Shih in the Taiwan Journal, XXV, 14).
        About the exhibition devoted to Ma Zu, goddess of the sea, held at the National Museum of History in downtown Taipei, from March 2-23. The exhibition is therefore closed, but the following passage seemed interesting. 'One of the highlights of the exhibition was a 2.7-meter long and 0.9-meter wide horizontally inscribed board. Loaned from Ciyou Temple--literally meaning protected by kindness--in Sinjhuang City, Taipei County, the relic has been in the temple since 1778 during the Ching dynasty (1644-1912). Differing from most boards that bear moral and ethical inscriptions, Ciyou's relic announces the details of a court action over a contested land title brought by two intellectuals named Li Wu-hou and Li Wei-jhi. The wooden tablet also includes detailed descriptions and maps of the area. "This is not a common tablet that could be found in an old temple because it served as a judicial decree as well as a historic artifact," Chairman Lin Tao-hung of Ciyou Temple said during the opening ceremony of the Cultural Exhibition of Taiwan's Goddess Ma Zu in the NMH.'

1963 map of the Gettysburg battle to be removed


• April 7. < http://blog.pennlive.com/leftcoast/2008/04/lights_out_at_the_gettysburg_e.html > 'Lights out at the Gettysburg Electric Map' (by Scott Roberts).
        'This Sunday will be the last day to visit the beloved Gettysburg Electric Map. Soon afterwards, the historic map will be cut into four pieces before being stored in a nearby Civil War-era barn. Park Service officials have yet to decide upon a new venue for the 60 year-old, one-of-a kind, 30 x 30 foot [9 x 9 metres] map. Relatives of the maps creator, Joseph Rosensteel, and visitors who view the map as a national treasure, are worried about the map's future.

  'Emily O'Neil, Rosensteel's daughter, is disappointed that the National Park Service has excluded the map from the new Gettysburg Visitors center. "It is just an incredible way to visualize those three days of the battle," she says. "The actual intent that my father had remains viable and extremely important to so many people." Kathi Schue, president of the Gettysburg Battlefield Preservation Association, calls the map "a national treasure." She is upset about the map being retired. "Do you know how many thousands of school kids have seen that map in the past 40 years? The things that they will be most likely to take away from their Gettysburg experience are the monuments and the map." John Latschar, superintendent of the Gettysburg National Military Park, agrees that the map is "an icon of its age," but describes the map as "one hundred percent antiquated." He adds that, "From an architectural standpoint, it takes up an immense amount of space."' For more on this story see, for example, the Civil War Librarian blog for 24 March 2008. [Update: 7 May 2008. A website has been set up by Jon Dekeles of Post Falls, Idaho to gather support for saving the map.]

More about the 1964-65 World’s Fair terrazzo map


• April 7. < http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/07/nyregion/07map.html?_r=1&oref=slogin > 'In the Tent of Tomorrow, a Faded Map of Yesteryear' (by David W. Dunlap in the New York Times).
        Further on the "half-acre terrazzo road map of New York State from the 1964-65 World’s Fair - an exuberantly overstated mix of small-town parochialism, space-age optimism and Pop Art irony", which it is hoped may be preserved. A small section is on display at the Queens Museum of Art until 4 May in the exhibition, Back on the Map: Revisiting the New York State Pavilion at the 1964-65 World’s Fair. [For an earlier entry, with links to additional illustrations, see the archive for 31 January 2008.]

Large Blaeu globes sold for a record sum


• April 4. < http://www.christies.com/LotFinder/lfsearch_coa/LotDescription.aspx > A pair of the largest globes produced by Willem Blaeu (and his son Johannes) have been sold at Christie's, Amsterdam for Euros 800,000. They came from the 'Princely House of Liechtenstein' and were bought by a private European collector. As usual, the globes formed a pair: a terrestrial of 1645/8 (i.e. showing Australia) and a celestial dated after 1630. At 68 cm (26 in), they were the largest globes of their time. The auctioneers claim that this is 'the largest sum ever paid for a work of art in the Netherlands, with the exception of paintings.' [Via Map the Universe and The Map Room weblogs].

Collecting tips from a US road map collector


• April 1. < http://www.collectorsweekly.com/blogs/dave/guest-column-an-interview-with-road-map-collector-richard-horwitz/ > 'Guest Column: An Interview With Road Map Collector Richard Horwitz' (by Marty Weil in the Collectors Weekly, via the Ephemera Blog).
        Interview with the past president of the Road Map Collectors Association, a retired picture editor who 'lives in New Jersey with his wife and more than 12,000 road maps'.

The new Tampa Bay History Center is to receive part of the Touchton map collection


• March 30. < http://www2.tbo.com/content/2008/mar/30/tr-treasured-maps-of-early-florida/ > 'Treasured Maps of Early Florida' (by Philip Morgan in the Tampa Tribune).
        About the 'Spanish exploration exhibit at the $52 million Tampa Bay History Center in Florida, which is scheduled to open in December in the Channel District', and the maps belonging to J. Thomas Touchton, president of the Witt-Touchton Co., an investment firm. Touchton 'has collected some 2,000 maps of Florida, from colonial Spain to early 20th century road maps. "Just by accident, I have put together over 25 years what dealers tell me is the largest collection of Florida maps in the world not in a museum or library," says Touchton, the history center's founding president who led the fundraising campaign to build and endow the new 60,000-square-foot facility. A prized possession is a 1622 edition of a 1601 Spanish map. "It's the first known printed map in history with the name 'Tampa' on it," he says. Over the next several years, Touchton will donate most of his collection to the history center. A number of unique items will be on display at the map center, which will have an adjacent map library so people can study them.'

1833 map of Covington, Louisiana to be preserved


• March 27. < http://blog.nola.com/tpnorthshore/2008/03/historic_map_of_covington_will.html > 'Historic map of Covington will get TLC at SLU' (by Charlie Chapple in the [New Orleans] Times-Picayune).
        'Covington officials, at the urging of former city councilwoman Pat Clanton, are moving to permanently preserve the oldest known map of the city in the regional archives of Southeastern Louisiana University in Hammond. The map, entitled "Commerce and Virtue the Division of St. John Covington," dates back to 1833 and once belonged to Clanton's grandfather, Emile Frederick Sr., who was the city's eighth mayor in 1891 and 1892. It was later given to the city by family member Harold Burns, Clanton's first cousin, during the administration of the late mayor Ernest J. Cooper in the early 1970s. The cloth map, encased in a gold frame, has been displayed on the walls of the mayor's office since then until the September 2006 fire at City Hall. It's now in a closet at the Greater Covington Center. Clanton said she became concerned about the map in 2005 when then City Council Clerk Lynne Moore discovered that the map was gradually fading. Clanton said she recently talked to Southeastern history professor Samuel C. Hyde Jr., director of the university's Center for Southeast Louisiana Studies and Archives. The center is willing to permanently store and preserve the document under a donation or loan agreement with the city, Clanton said.'

Map-inspired exhibition at the Royal Geographical Society


• March 27. Simeon Nelson, artist in residence with the Royal Geographical Society in London for the past 15 months, announces an exhibition of the resulting work, Into the Cryptosphere, running from 7 April-9 May 2008. His website illustrates the new work and the early maps that helped to inspire it.

Call for the Bodleian's Gough Map to be put on permanent display


• March 26 < http://www.oxfordmail.net/news/headlines/display.var.2147406.0.bodleians_rare_map_should_be_on_show.php > 'Bodleian's rare map 'should be on show'' (by Andrew Ffrench in the Oxford Mail).
        'One of the most important maps ever made in Britain should be placed on display, according to a key member of staff at Oxford University's Bodleian Library. The Gough Map, which dates from about 1360, is the earliest surviving map of Great Britain to show routes across the UK and to depict the island with a recognisable coastline. Richard Ovenden, keeper of special collections at the Bodleian, believes the map is such an important historical document that it should be on display for the public. He said the map was high on the list of items the library hoped to display, following a £5m donation from Julian Blackwell, to pay for ambitious redevelopment plans.'

  '"Schoolchildren from Oxfordshire will benefit from purpose-built facilities so they can engage with some of the Bodleian's treasures," Mr Ovenden said. Earlier this month, he warned that the renovation project, which is expected to start in 2010 and finish in 2012, would only happen if the Bodleian could free up space in the library, by building a £29m book depository on the Osney Mead industrial estate.

Official survey records lost in a fire in Pakistan


• March 21. < http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2008\03\21\story_21-3-2008_pg12_8 > '165-year-old maps burnt' (by Amar Guriro in the [Pakistan] Daily Times).
        'The city’s records [of Karachi], some over a century old, were burnt in the fire at the Board of Revenue Sindh building early Thursday morning. These records included 165-year-old historical and administrative records such as city surveys, maps, measurements, locations of all major arteries, small lanes, roads, temples, churches, mosques, graveyards, amenity plots, hospitals, government schools, public parks, railway tracks, tombs and shrines of saints, cow grazing spots, potable water ponds, government offices and all other places for which the government has allotted land. "In the colonial era when Bombay (Mumbai) was part of Sindh, the British government directed for the first time for a city survey at the grass-roots level in 1843," said an official who said he was not authorized to speak. "The survey was continued till 1911. During it, the revenue team measured every inch of the land of Sindh." ...

  'There were also records of other cities in Sindh, said Syed Anwar Hyder, a senior member of the Board of Revenue. An official of the city survey department said on conditions of anonymity that records of the land allocated during the tenure of former Sindh CM Dr Arbab Ghulam Rahim were also burnt. This claim was rejected by Hyder. When asked why such valuable material was kept in such a building, he replied that the records had been safe for a century and there was no reason to move them. He also rejected arson. "It could have been a short circuit, but we have yet to investigate that," Hyder said. "It was a public holiday and almost all the offices were closed and only a few officials came in the morning to do some important work," he said. "The fire broke out all of a sudden in the record room located on the rooftop of the office of the superintendent of the city survey."'

  Also another article in the same issue: < http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2008\03\21\story_21-3-2008_pg12_1 > 'Records go up in flames at Secretariat' (by Faraz Khan)
        'Important records of the surveys and land revenue department were destroyed Thursday after several government department offices, including the Board of Revenue building, were gutted in an inferno that erupted at the Sindh Secretariat. The decades-old building was established in 1836, during the British government, and is located opposite the Sindh Home Department, a short distance from the Sindh High Court. A four-member investigation team has been formed on the directives of the Sindh chief minister to probe the incident.'

  The two accounts leave many questions unanswered (usual with a major fire), as officials seek to pass the blame. See the related entry (in the 2007 archive, under 1 October) about early maps found in plastic sacks on the roof of the Karachi Municipal Archives and Research Department.

Details are awaited about Belgian digital initiative


• March 17. < http://mapsandmore.wordpress.com/2008/03/17/belgian-map-collections-go-digital/ > 'Belgian map collections go digital' (by Joost Depuydt on his Maps & more blog).
        'On March 14th, 2008 four Belgian federal institutions announced their common project to digitize their map collections. Unfortunately, I couldn’t find any substantial information about it, except for some small articles in the Belgian press. The websites of the four institutions remain silent. Nevertheless, the expectations run high, since considerable sums of money are being mentioned. The four institutions are:
  • Rijksarchief (State Archives)
  • Koninklijke Bibliotheek van België (Royal Library)
  • Koninklijk Museum voor Midden-Afrika (Royal Museum for Central Africa)
  • Nationaal Geografisch Instituut (National Geographic Institution'
  Joost Depuydt is in charge of maps, drawings and prints at the FelixArchief (City Archives) in Antwerp. [Update 26 March: the text of the article from Le Soir, 15-16 March 2008, is availabe on the BIMCC site (click on the illustration.]

  Library opens in Berkeley with a major collection of Japanese maps
  

• March 17. < http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2008/03/17/MNDGVJLC2.DTL > 'Cal's East Asian library's gold is on shelves' (by Charles Burress in the San Francisco Chronicle).
        'The campus fanfare swirling around the opening today of UC Berkeley's new $46.4 million C.V. Starr East Asian Library highlights the building's Asian-influenced architecture and especially its airy spaciousness. Much is made of it being the first freestanding library devoted to East Asia at any American university ... The rare items housed in the library will not be available until after the rare-book room opens on July 1 and will also require advance notice and special permission.' Among the 'gems' is 'a collection of 2,500 historic Japanese maps said to be the largest and most comprehensive outside of Japan'. The piece gives background information on the nature and origin of the library's collections, which include significant holdings of Chinese and Korean material. [See an earlier note about this library on 16 October 2007.]

Preview of 'Maps: Finding Our Place in the World'


• March 11. < http://www.baltimoresun.com/entertainment/bal-to.maps11mar11,0,2092666.story > 'To collectors' delight, exhibit is all over map. Cartography treasures displayed at Walters' (by Glenn McNatt in the Baltimore Sun ).
        A preview of the centrepiece in Baltimore's Festival of Maps, the exhibition at the Walters Art Museum. 'Maps: Finding Our Place in the World' opens on Sunday (16 March). Various people give their comments, including members of the Washington Map Society.

Champlain vividly remembered


• March 9. < http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/ideas/articles/2008/03/09/champlain_was_here/?page=1 > 'Champlain was here. America's founding myth tells of the Puritans landing in wild, uncharted lands. Yet a French explorer had already mapped the territory in exquisite detail.' (by Ted Widmer in the Boston Globe).
        The Director of the John Carter Brown Library introduces an exhibit curated by the JCB, "Champlain's America: New England and New France," showing at the Boston Public Library (March 13 to May 31). Celebrating the 400th anniversary of Quebec's foundation by Samuel de Champlain in 1608, the author reflects on his broadly forgotten achievements, for example in the discovery and mapping of much of the New England coast before the Mayflower arrived. Widmer's elegant piece is well worth reading. [Note: elsewhere the exhibit title is given as "Before New England: Champlain’s America".]

Map used for the last lunar landing up for auction


• March 7. < http://historical.ha.com/common/view_item.php?Sale_No=6000&Lot_No=58038&type=amer6000-temaa030608 > 'Apollo 17 Lunar Module Flown Complete Orbit Monitor Chart...'.
        Heritage Auction Galleries are offering the complete, 18-panel lunar chart produced for the last landing on the moon. This example was used by the mission Commander Gene Cernan, for navigating down to the surface. It notes where the lunar module was to land on 11 December 1972. The item is in an online sale, due to close on 24 March, with an estimate of $125,000-150,000.

The Baltimore 'Festival of Maps' has its own microsite for maps


• A revised version of the successful 2007 exhibition at Chicago's Field Museum opens in Baltimore on 16 March. The Walters Art Museum has set up a microsite, Maps at the Walters Art Museum, to keep track of the 'host of exhibitions and events'. Entry to the exhibition, which will run until 8 June, is free.

New book displaying the map treasures of the National Library of Australia


• March 6. < http://www.smh.com.au/news/national/you-are-here--maps-that-define-a-nation/2008/03/05/1204402556166.html > 'You are here - maps that define a nation' (by John Huxley in the Sydney Morning Herald).
        Announcing a new publication, Australia in Maps, 'a book of 52 great pieces of cartography from the library's collection of more than 1 million rarities, charts and aerial photographs ... The curator of maps, Martin Woods, concedes that the book - begun by his predecessor, Maura O'Connor, and more than 25 years in the making - barely scratches the surface of the library's collection. "But it's a start, an important part of the process of revealing more of our treasures, of our great stories, to the public. Funds are being raised to increase the library's maps display area, now so small that fewer than 10 items can be shown at once. And Dr Woods and his team have begun the huge task of digitising the collection for the library's website'. [Via The Map Room weblog].

A 17th-century Dutch wall-map found stuffed up a Scottish chimney


• March 1. 'The most commodius ornament: 17th century wall maps'.
        The latest issue of Cairt, the newsletter of the Scottish Maps Forum (issue 12, February 2008, pp.7-8), has the interesting story of an example of Valck & Schenck's wall-map of the world (no. 544 in Rodney Shirley's The Mapping of the World), whose royal arms of William & Mary place it in the period 1689-94. The large rolled map (166 x 227 cm/65x89in), on its original linen backing, was found 'stuffed up a chimney' in a house in north-east Scotland. The builder involved gave it to a friend, rather than putting it in a skip, and from there it found its way to the National Library of Scotland. Not surprisingly, the map is in appalling condition, but part of the double-hemisphere design, the ornamental borders and the strips of town view can be seen. Only one complete example is recorded, in Rotterdam.

David Rumsey to give this year's OCLC/Frederick G. Kilgour Lecture


• February 27 [seen March 1st]. < http://sils.unc.edu/news/releases/2008/02_rumsey.htm > 'Maps and technology to be featured at OCLC/Frederick G. Kilgour Lecture in Information and Library Science' (press release from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill).
        'David Rumsey, an historical map scholar and collector, will share how he turned his private map collection, one of the largest in the U.S., into a public resource at the second annual OCLC/Frederick G. Kilgour Lecture in Information and Library Science on Wednesday, March 19, 2008. Rumsey, president of Cartography Associates and Chairman of Luna Imaging, Inc., will present [as a free public lecture], "Turning Private Collections into Public Resources Using Digital Technologies and the Internet" in the Auditorium of the Frank Porter Graham Student Union on the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill campus at 2 p.m.' The release includes biographical notes and examples of two of his recent incursions into social networking: Google Earth and Second Life [on which see 'Historical Maps in Second Life: David Rumsey's antique maps feature in an innovative build in the virtual world' by Erica Naone in Technology Review, 29 February, and the preceding entry.]

David Rumsey launches his 'islands in Second Life'


• February 27. < http://www.prnewswire.com/cgi-bin/stories.pl?ACCT=104&STORY=/www/story/02-27-2008/0004763474&EDATE= > 'Mapping Into New Worlds: David Rumsey Historical Map Collection Establishes Unique, Experiential Map Exhibit in Second Life' (from PRNewswire).
        'David Rumsey took his historical map collection, one of the largest private map collections in the U.S., into virtual worlds today with the launch of the Rumsey Maps islands in Second Life ... '"Virtual worlds are the logical next step for my collection," said David Rumsey. "I've digitized over 17,000 maps at full resolution, which I am providing free for use on my site, and my maps have been featured as layers in both Google Earth and Google Sky. Using a virtual world allows me to create new ways of experiencing these maps in avatarized form and at unprecedented scale, for both learning and entertainment."' Five sample maps are briefly described.

Interdependent maps and text of 18th century Cheshire estates reunited


• February 25. < http://www.thisischeshire.co.uk/display.var.2069904.0.historical_sleuths_unearth_vital_documents.php > 'Historical sleuths unearth vital documents' (in this is Cheshire.co.uk).
        A heartening story of how luck and detective work led to a volume of 1762 estate plans by John Probert of the village of Wybunbury near Nantwich, Cheshire being reunited in the County Archives with their 'book of reference'. While the maps were handsome, they were of limited use without the accompanying text, which supplied the details of 'tenants, field names, acreages, rents etc.' Taken together, 'the documents and maps provide an accurate view of land use, the residents, tenants, fields, buildings and their uses, covering over 9,500 acres.' The maps had been cut out of the volume perhaps a century ago.

The history of Berlin focusing on contemporary maps


• February 21. < http://www.dailybruin.ucla.edu/news/2008/feb/21/professor-receives-grant-mapping-project/ > 'Professor receives grant for mapping project' (by Christina Brown in the Daily Bruin [UCLA]).
        'As part of a collaboration between a number of universities over many years, Professor of Germanic languages [at UCLA] Todd Presner’s project HyperCities, a Web-based platform that shows Berlin as it evolves over centuries, has won a grant totaling $238,000 from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation. The award will be presented today to Presner at a day-long convention in Chicago for the 17 winners. Recipients were selected from 1,010 applications for the first-ever Digital Media and Learning Competition run by the Humanities, Arts, Science and Technology Advanced Collaboratory and funded by the MacArthur Foundation ... The project now covers the 800-year history of Berlin through maps from the past ... With the grant money, the team hopes to expand the project to include Los Angeles, Rome and Lima.'

Claim that maps provide oldest evidence of Jewish ghettos in Italy


• February 20. < http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/faith/article3403817.ece > 'Secret documents from Holy Inquisition revealed' (by Richard Owen in The Times) [London].
        'Secret documents from the archives of the Holy Inquisition today went on public show for the first time in Rome - though not the instruments of torture used to extract confessions from heretics ... Marco Pizzo, co-curator of the exhibition with Monsignor Alejandro Cifres, head of the Congregation's archives, said the sixty documents on display at the Vittoriano Museum on Piazza Venezia in the centre of Rome included a collection of maps of Jewish settlements across Italy, "the oldest evidence we have of the ghettos"'. The exhibition, 'Rari e preziosi. Documenti dell'età moderna e contemporanea dagli archivi del Sant'Uffizio', runs until 16 March only. One of the talks in an associated three-day conference (21-23 February) is by Micaela Procaccia (Direzione generale per gli Archivi, Roma): 'Universitas hebreorum, Keillah qadosh: gli archivi per la storia degli ebrei in Italia' < http://w3.uniroma1.it/dsmc/notizie/allegati/Conv_inquisizione.doc >. [There does not seem to be a webpage for the exhibition.]

Uncatalogued map of Hampton, New Hampshire donated to the 'wrong' town


• February 19. < http://www.seacoastonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080219/NEWS/802190347/-1/NEWS10&sfad=1 > '1830s map of Hampton found in No. Hampton library' (by Amy Kane in the Seacoastonline).
        The hand-drawn map of Hampton, dated from internal evidence to about 1830, 'was discovered rolled up in a tube in the North Hampton Public Library, mistakenly donated to the wrong town 20 years ago and never catalogued.' It has now been transferred to the Hampton Historical Society, which will try to obtain funding for conservation and scanning. The map is "like a slice of history nobody knew existed". Each house is shown, 'oriented in its true direction, and labeled in small script with the owner's name'. The moral of the tale would be obvious to the map cataloguers of the world.

Two examples of a 1862 wall-map of Will County, Illinois made into one


• February 15. < http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chi-map_restored_15feb15,1,2285953.story?ctrack=2&cset=true > '2 Civil War-era maps are discovered and shed light on Will County. Civil War-era charts are shedding light on Will County history' (by Joel Hood in the Chicago Tribune).
        'Nobody is sure how long the old maps had been in that forgotten cast iron vault [in the country archive room], nothing but twine and luck holding them together. It wasn't until officials delicately unfurled the crumbling relics that the significance of the discovery came to light: a Civil War-era snapshot of Will County, and its movers and shakers, in remarkable detail.' The maps, though not identified as such, are presumably examples of S.H. Burhans and J. Van Vechten's, 'Map of Will County, Illinois' (1862). Finding two examples of the same map, both in poor condition, allowed conservators to 'cannibalise' one to provide the sections missing in the other. 'The 4-foot-by-5-foot map [122 x 152 cm] is the showcase piece of "The Origins of Will County" exhibit that begins Friday in Lockport, chronicling the lives of the county's early pioneers, business leaders and important figures in the throes of the Industrial Age.' [See further, 'Piecing together the past. Careful work helps rebuild old map of Will County' by Louise Brass in the Herald News, 22 February < http://www.suburbanchicagonews.com/heraldnews/lifestyles/801443,6_1_NA22_MAPS_S1.article >.]

The recently discovered first map of Namibia to go on display


• February 7. < http://allafrica.com/stories/200802070245.html > 'Namibia: Early Maps of Namibia on Display' (by Frederick Philander in the [Windhoek] New Era).
        An exhibition of early maps of Namibia is to be held at the National Art Gallery of Namibia, 'next Friday and will run until March 20'. This will display the maps and other materials (some of which contain valuable ethnographic detail) produced by the Swede, Charles John Andersson in 1851-67. The two maps he compiled were 'sent to the Royal Academy of Sciences in Stockholm, Sweden. The second map showed what is today northern Botswana and southern Zimbabwe with the Zambezi River. The waterfall Mosi-oa-Tunya is featured on the map which was made three years before Dr David Livingstone visited the Falls for the first time (1855) ... The Namibian map is the first map ever made of central and northern Namibia.' The unpublished maps were found only recently in Sweden. 'In addition to displaying the two unique maps, the exhibitors intend to bring forward and discuss the fact that the African people participated to a great extent with information and sketches in the production of the early maps, as well as guiding and leading the European, American and Asian explorers. This fact was hardly ever mentioned in the representations that the explorers did in their home countries about their discoveries in Africa.'

Pemberton's maps of Vancouver Island to be put on the web


• February 7. < http://ring.uvic.ca/08feb07/history.html > 'Clicking back in time: UVic Libraries put BC history online' (by Patty Pitts in the Ring, the University of Victoria's Community Newspaper).
        'Five original hand-coloured maps of Vancouver Island circa 1855-9 made by the colony’s surveyor-general, Joseph D. Pemberton' are among material from the University of Victoria’s Special Collections and Archives that are to be put on the web. This is possible because of a grant from the Irving K. Barber Learning Centre, marking the 150th anniversary of British Columbia. The scans will be made available on the library's image display system.

A major Italian archive digitised at UCLA


• February 1. < http://www.newsroom.ucla.edu/portal/ucla/orsini-43780.aspx > 'UCLA Library opens its major Orsini family archive to online searching. Rich trove of materials documents history of illustrious Italian family' (by Dawn Setzer in the UCLA Newsroom).
        The Charles E. Young Research Library Department of Special Collections, University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) announces online access to the extensive archive of the Orsini family ranging from 1150 to 1950, acquired in 1964. 'Much of the material concerns property administration, including maps, registers, plans, inventories of houses and palaces, appointments of personnel, and reports from estate managers'. The 'Maps and Plans' search option provides access to 132 images of maps, plans, and other documents, enlargeable to high resolution via Zoomify.

  'The Rome-based Orsini have been one of Italy’s leading families since the Middle Ages, when they acquired extensive lands across the central and southern parts of the country. Comparable in power and influence to the Medici family, the Orsini produced three popes, 28 cardinals and 33 Roman senators and were crucial players in the complicated power-game of Italian politics during some of the most tumultuous times in the country’s history'.

  The collection of Orsini parchments at the Archivo Storico Capitolano in Rome 'will soon be available on-line'.