Maps of the World

Collection History

In 1997, on the death of Lawrence H. Slaughter, part of his magnificent private map collection came to NYPL from his estate, as a gift from his family. In 2001, the second half of the collection was given to the Map Division. His collection of maps focuses on the Middle Atlantic region, and formed the basis for the exhibition "In thy map securely saile."

Another private collection came to NYPL in 1990 from the John H. Levine estate, comprised of a wonderful miscellany of antique maps for places around the world, from the Holy Lands to Bermuda, providing additional specimens for this digital presentation.

Background

Established in 1898, from map and atlas collections in the Astor and Lenox libraries, which that year joined to form The New York Public Library, the Map Division now holds some 400,000+ maps, atlases and books about cartography. Support from the National Endowment for the Humanities in 2000-2002 enabled cataloging of the Slaughter gift and the related maps included in this presentation, some of which are described in more detail on the "American Shores: Maps of the Middle Atlantic Region to 1850" site below.

Related Resources

Campbell, Tony. “Map History / History of Cartography.” (c2004) <http://www.maphistory.info/index.html>

Library of Congress. “American Memory: Map Collections 1500-2004.” (2004) <http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/gmdhtml/gmdhome.html>

NYPL. “American Shores: Maps of the Middle Atlantic Region to 1850.” (c2002) <http://www.nypl.org/research/midatlantic/>

_____ . “’In thy map securely saile’: Maps, Atlases, Charts, and Globes from the Lawrence H. Slaughter Collection.” (1998) <http://www.nypl.org/research/chss/epo/mapexhib/index.html>

Collection Data

Description
This collection of Maps of the World includes maps covering the all the continents and oceans together, in various two-dimensional projections, including double hemispheres, showing basic topographical features and/or, in some cases, topical themes. Maps date from the 16th century through the present day. Sectional maps from contiguous-area map series, plates from atlases, indexes, and other texts that accompany maps or that originated in atlases may also be found here. Maps depicting the World may also be found in other collections, including the Lawrence H. Slaughter Collection, the John H. Levine Collection, and the Atlases, Gazetteers, Guidebooks and Other Books collection. The maps in the Maps of the World collection have varying provenance. Some come from the Astor and Lenox libraries, which formed the foundation of NYPL's holdings; others were purchased by the Library or received as gifts from diverse sources over the years.
Library locations
Lionel Pincus and Princess Firyal Map Division
Genres
Maps
Type of Resource
Cartographic
Identifiers
Universal Unique Identifier (UUID): 6556d080-c6b6-012f-6324-58d385a7bc34
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