Osher Map Library Features Extensive Cartographic Collection
The Osher Map Library and Smith Center for Cartographic Education at the University of Southern Maine in Portland maintains a comprehensive collection of maps and globes. This institution provides access to modern and historic cartographic materials, some dating back hundreds of years, originating from various global regions.
Educational Approach
Students visiting the Osher Map Library are exposed to diverse mapping traditions. Many historical maps in the collection were created with Europe as a central focus, some preceding the mapping of the Americas, thereby illustrating differing historical geographical perspectives.
Shauna Martel, a teaching assistant, demonstrates global mapping conventions to students, noting that some regions, such as Australia, may feature maps oriented with that continent at the top.
Renee Keul, Assistant Director for Education and Outreach, observes that students typically perceive maps as empirically accurate due to familiarity with satellite and digital mapping services. The library clarifies that many older maps were not originally accurate and were limited by the mapmaker's perspective. This understanding constitutes a primary challenge when engaging with historical maps.
Approximately 13,000 students, ranging from kindergarten to university level, visit the Osher Map Library annually. Libby Bischof, Executive Director, states that the founding donors, L.C. Smith, Eleanor Houston Smith, Harold Osher, and Peggy Osher, intended for maps to be integrated across various curricula.
Over the past year, the library collaborated with more than 32 different academic disciplines, including history, environmental science, nursing, social work, astronomy, biology, and sociology. Bischof highlights the library's objective to make historical objects and materials accessible for engagement by new generations, a different approach from institutions that maintain collections exclusively in vaults. The Osher Map Library is recognized as one of the largest publicly accessible map collections in the country, holding about half a million cartographic items, globes, and atlas books, with the oldest item dating to 1475.
Collection Highlights and Thematic Content
Matthew Edney, a faculty scholar at the library, teaches a university course on global history that examines how different cultures have mapped their worlds, viewing 'world' as a cultural construct. Cartographic materials in the collection demonstrate how maps can reflect the power, ambitions, and objectives of various groups and governments.
The collection includes notable items such as "Uprooted People of the USA," a 1945 map by Black graphic designer and cartographer Louise Jefferson. This map illustrates widespread displacement in the U.S. during that period, depicting European refugees, military personnel movements, and Japanese internment camps on the West Coast.
The library's definition of a map is broad, encompassing items like "Willard's Tempe of Time," which charts the concept of time, and celestial maps. The collection also features books like the Nuremberg Chronicle, a 1493 world history volume with over 1800 woodcut illustrations of cities. Louis Miller, a librarian, notes that these detailed city views serve as early forms of cartography, predating modern innovations like Google Street View.
Acquisition of New Materials
Among recent acquisitions is a large cloth from India, a cosmological map depicting creation and human-divine relationships, used in the Jain religion. Edney notes its significance for teaching South Asian history.
The Osher Map Library actively acquires maps for its teaching collection. An example of an unexpected find is an 1887 Yaggy Geographical Study set, which the library had sought at auction. This set was discovered in the rafters of an uncle's house in central north Maine by a woman who contacted the Maine Historical Society, which directed her to the Osher Map Library. The acquired set includes a celestial map illustrating the heavens and planetary orbits.
Bischof indicates that maps are acquired through various channels, including dealers, attics, and forgotten storage. These items provide insights into historical and cultural perspectives on the world.