The 'Map History' site was officially launched in an announcement to the
MapHist list on 13 February 1997.
However, a number of pages had been mounted in late 1996, and the site's
inception can be traced back, more than a year earlier, to a proposal put
to a (generally sceptical) audience at the September 1995 meeting in
Vienna of the International Society of Curators of Early Maps. This was
followed by a more detailed proposal sent to MapHist on 1 November 1995.
Behind even that, though, was a message (again - where else? - to MapHist)
on 25 March 1995. This made a cogent case for a 'centralized location',
where bibliographical references could be posted, added to, and remain
readily accessible. That message was posted by Josh Hane (who was to die,
tragically early, on 21 June 1996) and his colleague at the University of
Wisconsin-Madison's Department of Geography, Charles Dean. I would like
here to acknowledge Josh and Charles for giving me the idea.
From the outset, until summer 2003, 'Map History' formed part of the website of the Institute
of Historical Research (University of London), whose hospitality is gratefully acknowledged.
At the beginning, I supplied text, which was turned into webpages by Derek McGhie (who was to
die, tragically young, in 2000). Subsequently, I graduated to editing existing pages online
and, later, to managing all web operations for 'Map History'. I would like to express my
thanks to Derek, and to his successors at the IHR for all their helpful advice.
Tony Campbell, August 2003