David Rumsey Profile

Today’s San Francisco Chronicle has a profile of David Rumsey, whose eponymous web site hosts a massive digital archive of his even more massive private collection of old maps: 10,000 maps — out of a total collection of 150,000! It’s a fascinating portrait of a man who got a little carried away in the very best sense.

(I mentioned this site tangentially when I reported on one of its collections back in April 2003, but have, to my great surprise, never blogged on it itself.)

Also worth noting, and mentioned in the article, is that Rumsey has published a book, Cartographica Extraordinaire, which puts a selection of his holdings into print. If nothing else, this looks like one hell of a coffee-table book. (It’s going on my wish list for sure.)

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