Collecting
- George Washington’s Yorktown Map Sells for $1.15 Million
- George Washington’s personal copy of The Battle of Yorktown, a map made by Jean-Baptiste Gouvion 10 days after the battle in 1781, sold at auction earlier this month for $1.15 million. Via MapHist and Map History/History of Cartography…. Read more →
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Posted on Saturday, February 13, 2010 at 10:53 AM

Categories: Collecting - Decorating with Maps
- A post on the Geographicus blog about using antique maps (and reproductions thereof) as decoration: “[T]he decorative qualities of fine maps are widely recognized by interior designers who appreciate their beauty and design flexibility. Depending on the individual map, presentation, and context, a rare or antique map can be modern,… Read more →
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Posted on Sunday, June 28, 2009 at 11:04 AM
Categories: Collecting - The Map Collector
- Articles from The Map Collector, a quarterly magazine published between 1977 and 1996, are being reprinted on Kuntspedia. About 30 or so articles so far; I don’t know where to begin. Via MapHist…. Read more →
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Posted on Monday, June 15, 2009 at 2:12 PM
Categories: Antique Maps, Collecting, History of Cartography - Saxton Atlas Being Auctioned
- A copy of a 16th-century atlas of England and Wales by Christopher Saxton is being auctioned at Southeby’s this week, the Yorkshire Post reports; the atlas is expected to fetch a quarter of a million dollars or so. For more on Saxton and his 1579 atlas of England and Wales,… Read more →
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Posted on Monday, June 15, 2009 at 2:02 PM
Categories: Collecting, History of Cartography - Starting a Map Collection
- The Geographicus blog has a few questions for people interested in getting into map collecting but who have no idea where to begin. (Me, I figure that if you have only a “vague idea of what [you] are interested in,” you should probably go off and do some research until… Read more →
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Posted on Tuesday, June 9, 2009 at 8:36 PM
Categories: Collecting - Geographicus
- Kevin Brown of Geographicus writes, “I am a generalist antique map dealer specializing in rare maps from the 15th through the 19th centuries. As a sideline I have also started a map blog on cartographic anomalies, current map-related events, and the antique map trade. … We also sponsor the Geographicus… Read more →
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Posted on Wednesday, May 13, 2009 at 3:11 PM
Categories: Antique Maps, Blogs, Collecting - Jonathan Potter Contemplates Retirement
- The Telegraph reports that Jonathan Potter’s entire £3-million catalogue of antique maps is available for sale as Potter, 58, prepares for retirement. On MapHist, however, Potter clarifies the situation: “My intention is for my business to continue into the next decade and beyond with enthusiasm and ambition. I expect to… Read more →
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Posted on Thursday, March 19, 2009 at 3:05 PM
Categories: Collecting - Collector Makes Donation to Polish Museum
- A 75-year-old collector, Tomasz Niewodniczanski, has donated a portion of his collection to the Royal Castle in Warsaw (now a national museum). “The donation includes maps and plans of Polish towns and letters and manuscripts of Polish kings — from Casimir the Great onwards) — prominent writers such as Mickiewicz,… Read more →
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Posted on Saturday, February 21, 2009 at 7:20 AM
Categories: Collecting - Miami International Map Fair 2009
- The sixteenth annual Miami International Map Fair takes place this weekend, on February 7 and 8, 2009, at the Historical Museum of Southern Florida; The Earth Times reprints the press release (previously)…. Read more →
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Posted on Monday, February 2, 2009 at 6:48 AM
Categories: Collecting - Champlain Map Auctioned for £130,000
- A 1612 map of New France drawn by Samuel de Champlain — briefly the subject of an investigation by Harvard curators who thought it might be a copy that went missing a few years ago — has fetched £130,000 at a Sotheby’s auction on Thursday. That’s three times what was… Read more →
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Posted on Saturday, November 15, 2008 at 6:48 PM
Categories: Collecting
- A Map Collector Profiled
- A profile of map collector Clarence Kylander — it seems that a lot of map collectors are doctors or retired doctors; I wonder why that is…. Read more →
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Posted on Thursday, August 7, 2008 at 9:07 PM
Categories: Collecting - Map Collecting in India
- This is interesting: an article about map collecting in India. Sanjay Jain of RS Books and Prints, South Extension, that is famous for its collection of antique maps, says, “The love for maps is connected to the sense of discovery. It’s a real pleasure, for instance, to peruse a rare… Read more →
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Posted on Thursday, June 26, 2008 at 5:45 AM
Categories: Collecting - Banks Map Included in Cook Collection Sale
- A sale of the largest private collection of Cook memorabilia includes, as one of its highlights, the Banks Map, depicting Australia and New Zealand. Printed in 1772 in a run of only 100 copies, the map was privately done while the British Admiralty took its time reporting on Cook’s discoveries…. Read more →
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Posted on Friday, May 2, 2008 at 12:27 PM
Categories: Collecting - Blaeu Globes Fetch €800,000
- Remember those two Blaeu globes I was telling you about — the ones that belonged to the royal family of Liechtenstein and were being auctioned by Christie’s? They were bought, by a private collection, for €800,000. Via Map the Universe…. Read more →
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Posted on Thursday, April 3, 2008 at 10:02 AM
Categories: Collecting, Globes - Blaeu Notes
- A digitized version of Willem and Joan Blaeu’s six-volume Toonneel des Aerdrycks, ofte Nieuwe Atlas (1659), produced for the city of Leiden, is available online from the Leiden Regional Archives; click here for the map viewer. Christie’s is auctioning two of Willem Blaeu’s globes — one terrestrial, one celestial. They’re… Read more →
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Posted on Monday, March 24, 2008 at 6:48 PM
Categories: Antique Maps, Collecting, Globes - A News Roundup and a Programming Note
- A few links to news stories to tide you over during the holidays: The Montreal Gazette on OpenStreetMap The Chicago Tribune on map collecting The Times rambles about the technology behind in-car navigation devices I’ll be off for about a week or so, during which time I will have limited… Read more →
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Posted on Saturday, December 22, 2007 at 9:25 PM
Categories: Collecting, Driving Directions, Site News, Surveying - Upcoming Map Fairs
- The Rocky Mountain Map Fair takes place September 14-15 at the Denver Public Library (via GeoCarta); the Paris Map Fair takes place November 10 at the Hotel Ambassador (via Map the Universe)…. Read more →
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Posted on Sunday, September 9, 2007 at 7:00 PM
Categories: Collecting - Atlantic Neptune Auctioned for C$900,000
- Canadian newspapers are reporting that the collection of Canadiana up for auction this week (see previous entry) went for the equivalent of $1.5 million (Canadian) — the Atlantic Neptune itself selling for the equivalent of around $900,000. (The article gives the Canadian-dollar equivalents, not the U.S. dollars in which… Read more →
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Posted on Wednesday, April 18, 2007 at 7:40 PM
Categories: Collecting, Nautical - Rare Book Auction Features Copy of Atlantic Neptune
- The rare book collection of the late Frank Streeter goes up for auction next Monday at Christie’s in New York; among the significant early Canadiana highlighted by this Canadian wire-service article about the auction is a copy of the four-volume, eighteenth-century Atlantic Neptune by Des Barres. The atlas is… Read more →
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Posted on Thursday, April 12, 2007 at 11:01 AM
Categories: Collecting, Nautical - Saxton-Boazio Atlas Auctioned for £669,600
- The atlas up for auction I referred to earlier, combining Christopher Saxton’s surveys of England and Wales with Giovanni Battista Boazio’s maps of Drake’s voyages to the Americas, both from the late 16th century, fetched £669,600 at auction yesterday at Southeby’s. The auction was won by an anonymous bidder…. Read more →
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Posted on Friday, March 16, 2007 at 1:41 PM
Categories: Collecting - Rare 16th-Century Atlas Up for Auction
- Speaking of 16th-century atlases, Sotheby’s is auctioning one off next month as part of the sale of an aristocrat’s library: The work of Yorkshire surveyor Christopher Saxton, printed between 1579 and 1590, is bound in one volume with a rare set of five charts by Giovanni Battista Boazio, illustrating Sir… Read more →
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Posted on Wednesday, February 28, 2007 at 1:19 PM
Categories: Collecting - Collecting Road Maps: Richard Horwitz
- Though I don’t collect them per se, I’ve always been a big fan of old road maps, so I enjoyed reading Ephemera’s interview with Richard Horwitz — he’s a past president of the Road Map Collectors Association, he owns more than 12,000 road maps, and he shares a few… Read more →
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Posted on Friday, February 2, 2007 at 6:06 PM
Categories: Collecting, Roads - Five of 2006’s Top 10 Most Expensive Books Were Atlases
- A Forbes article on the 10 most expensive books of 2006 (in the context of rare book auctions) makes this notable observation: “The top 10 list for 2006 includes a surprising number of atlases — five, including three versions of works by Ptolemy.” One of those was a 1477… Read more →
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Posted on Wednesday, January 17, 2007 at 9:31 AM
Categories: Collecting - Nicolay Rutter to Be Auctioned This Week
- A copy of the first accurate map of Scotland — a “rutter,” a book of sailing directions — is to be auctioned this week in Edinburgh, BBC News and The Scotsman report. The “Nicolay rutter” is a 1583 copy by French mapmaker Nicolas de Nicolay of an English manuscript… Read more →
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Posted on Sunday, January 7, 2007 at 10:04 PM
Categories: Collecting, Nautical - Miami International Map Fair
- I briefly mentioned the Miami International Map Fair — which touts itself as “the number one map fair in the world,” a place for map collectors and dealers to do all kinds of business — last year, but after the fact. The next one takes place on January 27… Read more →
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Posted on Sunday, December 31, 2006 at 4:56 PM
Categories: Collecting - Petroliana: The New York Times on Old Road Maps
- An article in yesterday’s New York Times about collecting old road maps and other assorted gas-station paraphernalia — “petroliana.” Profiles John Margolies, the co-author of Hitting the Road: The Art of the American Road Map, who gave a recent presentation on the subject in New York recently and whose collection… Read more →
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Posted on Monday, November 13, 2006 at 8:52 AM
Categories: Collecting, Roads - Antique Map Price Record
- The Antique Map Price Record is a CD-ROM-based reference tool that bills itself as more than just a listing of map prices (at auction, for example); it also contains reference images and bibilographical material, according to the publisher, who also maintains a list of antique map dealers on the site…. Read more →
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Posted on Sunday, November 5, 2006 at 4:31 PM
Categories: Collecting, Software - Cosmographia Fetches More Than £2.1 Million
- Wow. The 1477 Cosmographia, which was expected to fetch £1-1½ million at auction yesterday, instead sold for £2.136 million to an unnamed collector (AP, Reuters). That’s more than any other antique map or atlas has ever gone for at an auction. Via Map the Universe. See previous entry: Cosmographia… Read more →
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Posted on Wednesday, October 11, 2006 at 7:32 AM
Categories: Collecting - Cosmographia Auctioned
- The selling off of the late Lord Wardington’s map collection (see previous entry) continues. Next week, one of only two privately owned copies of the Cosmographia, the world’s first printed atlas — it was published in 1477, and based on Ptolemy’s Geographica (see previous entry) —will be auctioned at… Read more →
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Posted on Saturday, October 7, 2006 at 8:07 AM
Categories: Collecting - Map Collecting in Australia
- Via Map the Universe, an introductory article about map collecting from today’s edition — I guess by now it’d be yesterday’s edition — of the Sydney Morning Herald, using the local Antique Print Room as its backdrop and the earliest maps of Australia as examples…. Read more →
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Posted on Wednesday, September 20, 2006 at 7:23 PM
Categories: Collecting - Question: Software for a Personal Map Collection?
- M. Krause writes, “I’m starting a small antique map collection and would like to keep track of it on my computer (Macintosh). Is there map collection software available that will keep track of my inventory? I have searched the web to no avail.” While antique maps are another story, many… Read more →
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Posted on Sunday, August 27, 2006 at 7:19 AM
Categories: Collecting, Macintosh, Questions - Giclées
- A giclée is a high-quality art print made on a special inkjet printer. It’s by no means exclusive to maps, but it’s a term worth remembering. I first learned about it in the context of a MapHist discussion of fakes, forgeries and facsimiles, particularly in reference to an eBay auction… Read more →
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Posted on Wednesday, August 9, 2006 at 9:54 PM
Categories: Art, Collecting - Globe and Mail: LAC ‘All Over the Map’
- A follow-up article by Val Ross in today’s Globe and Mail about Library and Archives Canada’s attempt to bid on a copy of a map they already owned ascribes it to a lack of corporate memory and staff knowledge: “The Forlani in the national archives was a map that was… Read more →
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Posted on Thursday, August 3, 2006 at 8:36 AM
Categories: Collecting, Libraries - I Told Them We Already Got One
- Remember how Library and Archives Canada was getting set to bid on a 1562 world map by Forlani, one of the first with “Canada” on the map, that was expected to go for $200,000? Well, heh, funny story: it turns out they already have one. Actually, they have two: they… Read more →
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Posted on Thursday, July 27, 2006 at 8:16 AM
Categories: Collecting, Libraries - Canada’s Archives Interested in Map Auction?
- A 444-year-old map, one of the first with the name “Canada” on it, is up for auction at Christie’s next month, and Library and Archives Canada — the national archives and library — is deciding whether to bid on it. The map is expected to go for about $200,000. Via… Read more →
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Posted on Sunday, May 21, 2006 at 3:21 PM
Categories: Collecting - Intact Atlas, Asking 165 Large
- For the opening of the New York Antiquarian Book Fair, today’s New York Times has a story about a collector and a very rare atlas: [William] Reese plans to show “The American Atlas: A Geographical Description of the Whole Continent of America,” a first edition published by Thomas Jefferys of… Read more →
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Posted on Friday, April 14, 2006 at 8:27 AM
Categories: Collecting - Triangulations: March 13
- The Batch Geocoding Blog has a comparison of the Google, MapQuest and Yahoo! mapping APIs; it’s a quick outline of what the author sees as the pros and cons of each. Via Very Spatial. Alex Stengel says MapMemo 2.5 is now out; see previous entries about MapMemo’s previous releases… Read more →
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Posted on Monday, March 13, 2006 at 10:00 AM
Categories: Blogs, Collecting, Google Earth, Hacks & Mashups, Macintosh, Satellite & Aerial, Triangulations (Links) - What Can Collectors Do to Prevent Map Theft?
- Roger Baskes, president of the International Map Collectors’ Society, responds to the Forbes Smiley business (covered here at great length) with an article on what collectors can do to deter map thieves. In the article, which first appeared in the IMCoS quarterly journal but has been reprinted on Tony Campbell’s… Read more →
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Posted on Monday, February 27, 2006 at 8:18 PM
Categories: Collecting, Map Thefts - Link Roundup for February 17
- I’m still up to my neck in Olympics nonsense, but I’ve got a few links to share with you that have been accumulating in my “post these soon” file. For all you tube map fanatics, a London Underground Map where the stations have been relabelled with anagrams of their names…. Read more →
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Posted on Friday, February 17, 2006 at 9:53 AM
Categories: Collecting, GIS, Mass Transit, Triangulations (Links) - Link Roundup for February 6
- Now that it’s available for the Mac, Macworld reviews Google Earth. Robert Gelb reviews Chandu Thota’s Programming MapPoint in .NET: “The bottom line is that if you are developing anything mapping related with Microsoft components, you gotta buy this book. Period.” (Via Chandu Thota.) The Miami International Map Fair took… Read more →
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Posted on Monday, February 6, 2006 at 7:15 AM
Categories: Books, Collecting, Satellite & Aerial, Software, Triangulations (Links) - Map History Latest News; Arader Buys a Map
- Our friend Tony Campbell has added a Latest News page to his awe-inspiring Map History/History of Cartography site, where he plans to bring news items to our attention. (Let the duel of Google Alerts commence!) Anyway, he’s just started, but amongst the stories he’s linked to so far is this… Read more →
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Posted on Sunday, November 20, 2005 at 3:12 PM
Categories: Collecting, Dealers & Stores - Collection Auctioned, Expected to Raise £5 Million
- A 700-volume, 60,000-map collection of atlases dating back to the 15th century is being auctioned by its late owner, the BBC reports, and is expected to fetch a total of £5 million. The collection was saved from a fire last year, and is being sold to cover the cost of… Read more →
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Posted on Tuesday, October 18, 2005 at 12:48 PM
Categories: Collecting - Map Events in Colorado
- Denver is going to be a busy place for map lovers this month. The International Map Collectors’ Society’s symposium takes place between September 18 and 23, and is held in conjunction with the Rocky Mountain Map Society’s antique map fair, which takes place just before the symposium on September 17… Read more →
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Posted on Wednesday, September 7, 2005 at 9:31 AM
Categories: Collecting, Conferences, GIS, Groups & Societies - Waldseemuller’s Map Goes for £545,600
- An update. One of four surviving copies of Martin Waldseemuller’s 1507 map — the first to label the New World as “America” — went for £545,600 at auction at Christie’s today. See previous entry. It’s the most any map has fetched at an auction; the previous record was £125,000. Update:… Read more →
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Posted on Wednesday, June 8, 2005 at 12:44 PM
Categories: Collecting - Auction of First Map of the New World
- One of four surviving copies of the first map to label the New World as “America” — a 1507 map by Martin Waldseemuller — is being auctioned by Christie’s in June. Better issue a share certificate on your firstborn, though: it’s expected to fetch £800,000. Via Here Be Dragons…. Read more →
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Posted on Thursday, April 14, 2005 at 10:48 PM
Categories: Collecting
Note: Entries from 2003 were not categorized and will not appear in the category archives. Please consult the monthly archives.
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