{"id":20416,"date":"2016-07-14T09:41:11","date_gmt":"2016-07-14T17:41:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/wpmu.library.oregonstate.edu\/osu_archives\/?p=20416"},"modified":"2016-07-14T09:41:11","modified_gmt":"2016-07-14T17:41:11","slug":"a-multitude-of-maps-processing-the-william-h-galvani-rare-maps-collection","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dev.blogs.oregonstate.edu\/scarc\/2016\/07\/14\/a-multitude-of-maps-processing-the-william-h-galvani-rare-maps-collection\/","title":{"rendered":"A Multitude of Maps: Processing the William H. Galvani Rare Maps Collection"},"content":{"rendered":"

This post was written by\u00a0Lauren Goss, MLIS student at San Jose State University and student assistant in SCARC.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

\"Adirondack<\/a>

Adirondack Survey 1873 – Specimen of Preliminary Reconnaissance Sketch Showing the Approximate Positions and Names of Thirty Nine Ponds or Lakes Important and New to the Maps (Pl. 11), circa 1870<\/p><\/div>\n

Last spring, Anne Bahde (Rare Books and History of Science Librarian in SCARC) presented me with a new project of processing the rare maps collection of William H. Galvani. \u00a0In 1947, the Oregon State University Library received the maps through Galvani\u2019s bequest of his personal library, a gift that included about 5,500 books. The maps were transferred to SCARC a few years ago, and at that time it was unknown the total number of maps in the collection, or their geographic or temporal span. \u00a0My initial workflow focused on determining if the maps had been separated from books in Galvani\u2019s collection, as many of the maps show signs of being part of a bound volume at one time. \u00a0However, this project quickly took on a much larger scope as I determined all of the maps were an entirely separate collection. \u00a0Not one of the over 1,050 maps originated from Galvani\u2019s books, a fact which provides some insight into his avid and eclectic interest in historic materials. \u00a0A future blog post will explore Galvani as a collector and his multi-decade relationship with Oregon State University.<\/p>\n

The process of identifying, organizing and describing the maps grew longitudinally (pun intended). \u00a0The maps had been moved from the dusty forgotten map drawer where they were originally discovered to a combination of oversize boxes and map folders, and some related maps were inadvertently separated. \u00a0Initially, it was difficult deciding what and how much information to record especially because the scope and purpose of the project evolved. \u00a0\u00a0My spreadsheet captured an amalgamation of data focusing on three themes of information: geographic, bibliographic, and archival. \u00a0After identifying every map, I normalized this data and developed a hybrid finding aid. \u00a0I encountered difficulty in locating a finding aid for a similar map collection at another institution (one comparable in extent, collection of an individual and not a specific institution or originating organization, and the broad geographic and temporal scope). \u00a0So, the finding aid I created includes a series for each continent, identifiable bibliographic sources for a map or set of maps, and individual map information including title and date, creators (engraver, lithographer, publisher, etc.), and geographic location. These access points will enable a number of different routes of inquiry for scholars and students.<\/p>\n

Despite the challenges of this large collection, I am proud of the robust item-level finding aid. \u00a0In 1949, Clara Egli LeGear, who worked in the Geography and Map Division of the Library of Congress, published Maps: Their Care, Repair and Preservation in Libraries<\/em>. \u00a0With regard to map cataloging and classification, she said: \u201call the time and energy spent on them, however, is infinitely worthwhile, for a single map portrays instantly what thousands of words cannot reveal\u201d (viii). \u00a0Maps are an underutilized historic research tool, and the recently completed William H. Galvani Rare Maps Collection<\/a> should prove useful to a variety of researchers. \u00a0The majority of Galvani\u2019s maps depict 19th century military campaigns in Europe and Asia, but the collection also includes topographical surveys, explorers\u2019 charts, and detailed maps of cities from around the world. \u00a0The next blog post will feature particular highlights of each series, but in the meantime, here is a map that exemplifies the visual power of these cartographic resources.<\/p>\n

\"Austral\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The Carte de l’hemisphere Austral: Montrant les routes des navigateurs les plus celebres par la Capitaine Jacques Cook (Pl. 2)<\/em>\u00a0to the left shows the different routes of Captain Cook\u2019s voyages in the southern hemisphere. \u00a0Notably, there is no outline of the continent Antarctica, as formal exploration had not yet occurred.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This post was written by\u00a0Lauren Goss, MLIS student at San Jose State University and student assistant in SCARC.\u00a0 Last spring, Anne Bahde (Rare Books and History of Science Librarian in SCARC) presented me with a new project of processing the rare maps collection of William H. Galvani. \u00a0In 1947, the Oregon State University Library received […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1451,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"A Multitude of Maps: Processing the William H. Galvani Rare Maps Collection","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[233190],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-20416","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-main-page"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/paNHDP-5ji","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dev.blogs.oregonstate.edu\/scarc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20416","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dev.blogs.oregonstate.edu\/scarc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dev.blogs.oregonstate.edu\/scarc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dev.blogs.oregonstate.edu\/scarc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1451"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dev.blogs.oregonstate.edu\/scarc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20416"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dev.blogs.oregonstate.edu\/scarc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20416\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dev.blogs.oregonstate.edu\/scarc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20416"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dev.blogs.oregonstate.edu\/scarc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20416"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dev.blogs.oregonstate.edu\/scarc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20416"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}