Stanford University’s Branner Earth Sciences Library has recently acquired 7,000 old road maps through a generous donation by the California State Automobile Association (CSAA). The recent donation was triggered by the CSAA’s move to new headquarters with less space. Along with the road maps, the CSAA donation includes thousands of linen maps, topographic maps and county tract maps that expose the microscopic details of Northern California’s landscape, even down to housing tracts. Included with the acquisition of this collection are several boxes of etched sheets of scribecoat, a material similar to Mylar that was used by CSAA mapmakers in the 1970’s as part of the photomechanical cartographic process. Here is a link to an article from Stanford University discussing the details of the collection. http://news.stanford.edu/news/2009/march18/aaa-maps-donation-031809.html
3 comments:
Very cool! It is nice that they have a shot at being preserved instead of just recycled into pulp. Is that photo one of yours?
How ironic that a university that disbanded its Geography Department some 45 years ago is the recipient of this map collection.
I'm sure my parents and grandparents also have maps they could contribute from a long time ago too. But they've been handled and not preserved well. Yes, that is very good that someone will take care of the maps.
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