David Rumsey Map Collection

A Mile Long Map At Burning Man 2024

Can a map be a mile long? Kevin Kelly (founding editor of Wired Magazine) and David Rumsey created one with The Speed of The Earth art installation, a roughly one mile long line of 30 strobe lights mapping the rotational speed of the earth on its axis - 1156 feet per second or 788 miles per hour. Installed at Burning Man on the Black Rock Desert in Nevada in September of 2024, The Speed of The Earth joined over 400 other art works to form one of the largest public art exhibitions in the world, seen by over 75,000 attendees. The lights moved at the Earth's rotational speed around its axis at the latitude of Burning Man. Watching the lights move, observers were able to feel the rotation of the Earth under their feet. Each light unit made its own solar power, stored it in batteries for night consumption, ran 24/7 without interruption, and used GPS satellites to determine when to flash in sequence. 

Drone video shows the lights at night from above.

The Speed of The Earth installation is the red line.

Showing the 100 foot corona of each light.

One of the thirty lights.

The lights seen from the top of The Man looking north towards the Temple.

Light flashing.

Lights seen at ground level moving from east to west across the playa.

Video by Reza Tabesh - "From this one spot you can see 4 perspectives from Burning Man 🔥 @_mayanwarrior_ takes the foreground with @sonicrunway being seen in the distance. Upon observation you can easily see the lights from art installation, The Speed of The Earth and far in the background you can even see the Drone Show. Burning Man is an incredible place where many perspectives and energies come together in harmony" Watch on Instagram with Sound

Check out this great instagram post about the installation by @jamenpercy.burn

‘The Speed of the Earth’ by Kevin Kelly @kevin2kelly and David Rumsey was a fascinating artwork and bit of tech. What looks like just a flashing set of lights nearly a mile long, was far more than that. The lights are programmed precisely at the speed of the Earths rotation, each Independently lighting up with a pulse of light using GPS. This gave the viewer a visible representation of how fast we are spinning through space on this crazy round rock. The sheer sense of scale is mind blowing and an excellent piece viewed from above!

A Stranger Quest

Documentary – 90 minutes – 2023

David Rumsey has spent the last 30 years building one of the biggest historical map collections in the world. He calls it his poem. As seen through the eyes of an AI narrator, this seems like an unexplainable quest. In this film, the narrator follows him on a road trip as he encounters ghosts from his past and sees the end inching closer. "A Stranger Quest" premiers at the Torino Film Festival November 30. Made by Italian filmmaker Andrea Gatopoulos, the film will be released in 2024.

John Hessler – In Conversation with David Rumsey

San Francisco Chronicle Article on New Directions for the David Rumsey Map Center

"At Stanford’s David Rumsey Map Center, the past, present and future converge"

Andres Picon, San Francisco Chronicle
Dec. 24, 2021

Map collector and authority David Rumsey with wallpaper made from one of his most treasured maps. Photos by Jessica Christian / The Chronicle

Deep inside Stanford University's Green Library, David Rumsey makes his way up a winding staircase, stopping at every turn to admire the various historical map wallpapers that stretch from floor to ceiling. With infectious excitement, he takes in the Paraná River in South America, Hell's Kitchen in Manhattan, Mount Kailash in Tibet and even the constellations, depicted colorfully in a massive celestial chart.

At the top of the stairs, Rumsey, a San Francisco resident and one of the country's leading map collectors, reaches the David Rumsey Map Center, where he again stops to admire a historical map — this time a 1602 goat-hide map of Europe splayed out on a table. He traces the worn, blackened edges with his fingertip.

"It's banged up, but it's beautiful," he said. "It tells a story."

Rumsey examines the collection’s oldest map, the Multi-Sheet Urbano Monte World Map, 1587, at the map center that bears his name. Jessica Christian / The Chronicle

The map center, home to an estimated 250,000 physical maps and more than 200,000 digital maps from 1500 to the present — most of them donated by Rumsey — is a cross between a library and a laboratory, replete with leatherbound atlases, spinning globes, enormous high-definition touchscreens and several virtual reality stations.

"I call this ‘map heaven,'" said G. Salim Mohammed, the center's head and curator. "This is a place where maps come alive." It's a cozy space where the past, present and future converge to accomplish what Rumsey has been working toward for more than two decades: making historical maps, and the information they hold, accessible to the public, not just experts and collectors.

Map collector David Rumsey stands at the base of a wall decorated with a Celestial Atlas Plate 2: Cetus, Aquarius, Andromeda, 1693 by Ignace-Gaston Pardies at the David Rumsey Map Center inside the Cecil H. Green Library at Stanford University . Rumsey has donated much of his historical map collection to the Center. Jessica Christian/The Chronicle

"You can have hundreds of thousands of maps, but if you can't discover them, they don't exist," Mohammed said. "That is where this library comes in."

The idea is for the center to serve as an arena for experimentation and education where individuals, regardless of their scholarship on maps, can explore the primary documents and their scanned, digital counterparts in order to perhaps learn a little bit about where we've come from and where we are today.

At the heart of that endeavor is the digitization of Rumsey's vast physical collection, a project he began in the late 1990s when he  launched davidrumsey.com, a constantly growing aggregation of about 112,000 digitized historical maps from his personal inventory. Rumsey, 77, is in the process of donating his entire map collection — more than 200,000 physical maps plus the digital ones — to Stanford so that they can be cataloged for the enjoyment of generations to come.

"It's not only a database; it allows people to get lost inside it, no pun intended," he said. "If you make it really usable and accessible the way ours is, it just becomes something different."

Map collector David Rumsey stands among glass cases of priceless globes he donated to the David Rumsey Map Center inside the Cecil H. Green Library at Stanford University in Stanford, Calif. Monday, Dec. 6, 2021. Rumsey has donated much of his 150,000 historical map collection to the Center. Jessica Christian / The Chronicle

The map center, which opened in 2016, has been called the "gold standard" of map libraries and is at the forefront of some of the most advanced mapexploration technology. Visitors are able to experiment with georeferencing, 2-D and 3-D map overlays, and virtual and augmented reality equipment — much of that made possible in part by Stanford's high-resolution scanners that produce stunning digital maps with up to 800 pixels per inch.

Georeferencing allows a user to digitally place a historical map on top of a modern map. The user can change the transparency of the old map to see the modern map underneath, revealing changes over time and combining unique aspects of each map.

Rumsey recently demonstrated the tool with an 1857 map of San Francisco over the modern Google Maps version. He dialed up the old map's transparency to show how certain parts of the city today, such as Rincon Hill and Mission Bay, were once part of San Francisco Bay.

The center's staff have also turned historical and modern maps into 3D landscapes accessible through virtual reality. The street layout of Paris in the 18th century could suddenly be explored using a map from that time and an Oculus Rift headset.

Map collector David Rumsey stands against a touch screen catalog of the full collection at the David Rumsey Map Center at Stanford University. Jessica Christian/The Chronicle

A Stanford professor once took her class to the map center for a lesson on empathy in which students were able to "visit" a Syrian refugee camp using the same technology.

"There wasn't a dry eye that day," Mohammed said. "It's about putting the students in that space."

Those kinds of experiments are at the crux of the map center's mission. Maps are representations of our past and present, each made unique by the motives and experiences of their creators, Rumsey and Mohammed said. By expanding opportunities for immersion in and exploration of those representations, visitors can gain insight into history as well as valuable context for the present.

Atlases donated by map collector David Rumsey sit behind locked shelves at the David Rumsey Map Center at Stanford University. Jessica Christian/The Chronicle

"The beauty of the old maps is the way they were drawn, the artistry involved," Rumsey said. "But from an informational perspective, they're history. Everything happens somewhere, so they are ways of seeing history."

Throughout the next few years, the center will continue to advance the technology it makes available to visitors, Rumsey and Mohammed said. They hope to incorporate artificial intelligence to make it possible to search for words on digitized maps regardless of their orientation or position, as well as a framework for systematically searching digital map files across platforms and databases. They're also looking to put greater emphasis on data visualization and to expand into the metaverse, which could "pull users into the map world," Rumsey said.

"It's way more than just the individual maps; it's about the use of the maps," Rumsey said. "We try to push the boundaries."

The map center also hosts events, lectures and exhibitions, such as one currently on display about indigenous mapping. The center is open only to Stanford students and employees due to COVID-19 restrictions, but the staff hopes to be able to reopen it to the public by next summer.

Andy Picon is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer.
Email: andy.picon@hearst.com Twitter: @andpicon

Largest Early World Map - Monte's 10 ft. Planisphere of 1587

An extraordinary 60 sheet manuscript world map made in 1587 by Urbano Monte has been added to the David Rumsey Map Collection at Stanford University. At 10 foot square, this map or planisphere is the largest known early map of the world. It was hand drawn by Monte in Milan, Italy, and only one other manuscript copy exists. The digitally joined 60 sheet map image below is the first time the map Monte made has been seen as one unified map - as Monte intended - in the 430 years since it was created. See all the individual sheets here.

Monte's map reminds us of why historical maps are so important as primary resources: the north polar azimuthal projection of his planisphere uses the advanced scientific ideas of his time; the artistry in drawing and decorating the map embodies design at the highest level; and the view of the world then gives us a deep historical resource with the listing of places, the shape of spaces, and the commentary interwoven into the map. Science, art, and history all in one document. Until now, Monte’s manuscript map was seen as a series of 60 individual sheets. The only assembled version is the small single page key sheet of the series. Now that we have joined all 60 sheets digitally (accomplished with great skill by Brandon Rumsey), we can appreciate in a new way the extraordinary accomplishment that Monte made. The assembled map, just over 10 feet in diameter, is one of the largest—if not the largest—world maps made in the 16th century. The degree of detail and decoration is stunning and the entire production is surely unique in the history of cartographic representation.

Monte made his map to serve not only as a geographical tool but also to show climate, customs, length of day, distances within regions - in other words, to create a universal scientific planisphere. In his dedication on Tavola XL he specifies how to arrange the sheets of the planisphere and makes it explicit that the whole map was to be stuck on a wooden panel 5 and a half brachia square (about ten feet) so that it could be revolved around a central pivot or pin through the north pole. This was never done, but now we can do it virtually - Monte's 60 sheet world map digitally assembled into a 10 foot planisphere:

Monte's depiction of Japan is advanced for the time, probably drawing on information provided to him by the Japanese Embassy to Milan and Italy in 1585.

In 1589, two years after the map was completed but perhaps still being revised, Monte updated his portrait at age 43 with a new circular image pasted on top of the earlier one, now showing his age to be 45. The new portrait is hinged and can be lifted up as illustrated below. 

The 6 images below show how the 60 gore sheets and 4 corner sheets were progressively joined to create the final complete 10 foot planisphere. The 1st ring of 4 sheets was joined (making sheets 1-4), then the 1st ring was added to the 2nd ring of 8 sheets (making sheets 1-12), then the 1st and 2nd rings were added to the 3rd ring of 12 sheets (making sheets 1-24), then the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd rings were added to the 4th ring of 18 sheets (making sheets 1-42), then the 1st through 4th rings were added to the 5th ring of 18 sheets (making sheets 1-60), and finally those 5 rings were added to the 4 corner sheets and labels making the complete map.

Composite of Tavola 1-4. 1st Ring of Planisphere

Composite of Tavola 1-12. 1st and 2nd Rings of Planisphere

Composite of Tavola 1-24. 1st through 3rd Rings of Planisphere

Composite of Tavola 1-42. 1st through 4th Rings of Planisphere

Composite of Tavola 1-60. 1st to 5th Rings of Planisphere  (See Rotating as Monte Intended)

Composite of Tavola 1-60 and the Plates for the 4 Corners

When we georeference Monte’s map and then re-project it into Mercator projection we immediately understand why he used the north polar projection instead of Mercator’s: Monte wanted to show the entire earth as close as possible to a three-dimensional sphere using a two-dimensional surface. His projection does just that, notwithstanding the distortions around the south pole. Those same distortions exist in the Mercator’s world map, and by their outsized prominence on Monte’s map they gave him a vast area to indulge in all the speculations about Antarctica that proliferated in geographical descriptions in the 16th century. While Mercator’s projection became standard in years to come due to its ability to accurately measure distance and bearing, Monte’s polar projection gave a better view of the relationships of the continents and oceans. In the 20th century air age, the polar projection returned as a favored way to show the earth. Monte would have been pleased to see a modern version of his map used in the official emblem of the United Nations. Below is Monte's map georeferenced and re-projected as Plate Caree or Geographic. In this form it can be placed in Google Earth.

Monte's planisphere accompanies a multi volume geographical treatise on the world and cosmology. It is hoped that further research will better join the text in the treatise to the text and geographical descriptions on the map itself. It will be of great interest to discover the sources of Monte's geographical work and how he configured that information to create his own unique view of the world in his remarkable map. Update: Read Chet Van Duzer's just published article on  Urbano Monte’s World Maps: Sources and Development.

Georeferencer Updated to v4

Georeferencer v4 is an improved and updated version of our prior Georeferencer v3.  It allows you to overlay historic maps on modern maps or other historic maps. The overlaid maps reveal changes over time and enable map analysis and discovery. New features in v4 include georeferencing several maps on one sheet, Grid view to compare multiple maps, Swipe and Spy Glass views, built in 3D viewer, Transcribe and GeoEditors, and all new Georeferencer Compare view. You can choose your own maps to georeference by Searching LUNA and using the Georeference This Map button or help us georeference the entire online map library using our Random Map link to georeference maps in our First Pilot Project of 6,000 maps of major cities and regions. Users who georeference the most maps will be recognized in the bar displays below. Recently Georeferenced maps can be viewed by image or by location. 
Georeferencer v4 has two windows: the Georeferencer Compare window and the This Map/Georeference/View window. The Georeferencer Compare window allows searching for maps from various sources, then comparing them using several different views - Overlay, Grid, Swipe, and Spy glass.

Fix Location of a MapGeoreferenced MapsGeoreferencer CompareHelp

Georeferencer Compare window: (click to open)

The This Map/Georeference/View window allows you to georeference maps, view maps in 2D and 3D, geoedit maps, get map links for GIS apps, Transcribe annotations on the maps, and more.

This Map/Georeference/View window: (click to open)

The images below of Yosemite Valley 1883 show methods used.

1. To get started, click on either the orange button below "Fix Location of a Map" or the "Search LUNA..." button. If you search Luna and find a map you want to georeference, open it in the zoom view window and click on the orange button "Georeference this map." If the map has already been georeferenced the button will say "View in Georeferencer." There will be many help screens that will show the process of georeferencing the maps as you move through the steps.
2. Enlarge the old and modern maps to find matching town names, street names or other places and assign common points to each maps. At least three points are required, and the more points you assign, the better the georeferencing will be. Use the search box in the modern map to find places listed on the old map. Spread you points over the largest possible area.
3. After assigning at least three points, click on the "Clip" button in the old map window to draw blue lines around the content area of the map. The Clip lines should be just inside the border of the map.
4. When finished, click on the "Save" button (although the map will save automatically). Then choose the View This Map or the Overlay & Compare page to see the map.
5. In the View This Map page chose 2D or 3D or Image views. For the 3D view you need to sign in (or set up free account).
6. In the Overlay & Compare page (Georeferencer Compare) you can view one map or search for maps from various sources, and then compare them using several different views - Overlay, Grid, Swipe, and Spy glass.
7. From the This Map pages, use the GeoEditor to locate and measure areas, distances, locations, and more. Use the Transcribe feature to annotate the maps.
8. For more detailed Help, see our Georeferencer Help Page. If you find bugs or problems, use the Hamburger drop down menu in the upper left corner of all screens to send us a message about the problem with the Send Feedback tab.

Klokan Technologies developed Georeferencer with the Moravian Library. You can combine and compare maps from many other libraries using the Old Maps Online tab in the Georeferencer/Compare pages along with maps from our collection. Soon you will be able to upload your own maps and georeference them. Those maps will then show up in your My Private Maps list.

Fix Location of a MapSearch LUNA for a map to Georeference

The Georeferencer View This Map page below shows the 2D view of the Yosemite Map 1883 with transparency slider. Click on the image to go to the View This Map page in Georeferencer for this map:

The Georeferencer Compare page below shows a Grid view of four maps of the Yosemite Valley made at different times from the present back to 1868. Click on the image to go to the Compare page Grid view in Georeferencer for this map:

The Georeferencer Compare page below shows a Swipe view of two maps of the Yosemite Map - the present day map and the 1883 map. Click on the image to go to the Compare page Swipe view in Georeferencer for this map:

The Georeferencer Compare page below shows a Spy Glass view of two maps of the Yosemite Map - the present day map and the 1883 map. Click on the image to go to the Compare page Spy Glass view in Georeferencer for this map:

The Georeferencer Compare page below shows a 3D view of the Yosemite Map. Click on the image to go to the 3D view in Georeferencer for this map (requires sign in to a free account):

The Georeferencer Compare page below shows a 6 panel Grid view of 6 maps of New York City - from the present day back to 1782. Click on the image to go to the Compare page Grid view in Georeferencer for this map:

6 Maps of New York City from 1782 to the present shown in the Grid view in Georeferencer

First Pilot Progress - Cities and Regions

Progress of Georeferencing of All Maps

Top Contributors and Charts All Time

Top Contributors Past Week

Recently Georeferenced Maps

Georeferenced Map Finder

David Rumsey Map Center Opens at Stanford

The David Rumsey Map Center opens April 19, 2016 at Stanford.  Rumsey has donated both his physical and digital map collections to Stanford where they will be housed in the new Rumsey Map Center facility in the Bing Wing of the Green library. The online library at www.davidrumsey.com will continue to operate in parallel to and integrated with the resources available at the Stanford Rumsey Map Center.  See this article about the opening in the Stanford Report online, and another article at KQED about the opening, the exhibition, and opening events.  Additional articles at National Geographic, Wired, and Open Culture.  

Georeferencer Added to Online Library

Help Us Find Locations for Our Maps

Georeferencer is a new application we have added to our online library. It allows you to overlay historic maps on modern maps and other historic maps. The overlaid maps reveal changes over time and enable many kinds of analysis and discovery. Read more about it on our Georeferencer page. The image below from Georeferencer shows San Francisco Mission Bay in 1857 on the left compared with the modern map of San Francisco on the right, showing Mission Bay completely filled in. The two maps are perfectly aligned in Georeferencer in the Side-by side view and the red dot shows the same location in both maps. You can pan and zoom the two maps in sync.

Here the map in the 2D view in Georeferencer is overlaid on the modern map and the transparency slider used to show dramatic changes in the shoreline and the filling in of Mission Bay over the ensuing 100 years.

You can choose your own maps to georeference by Searching LUNA or help us georeference the entire online map library by using our Random Map link which will open maps that are part of our First Pilot Project. The video below gives a quick explanation of the process. Users who georeference the most maps will be recognized on our site. The First Pilot Project will include over 10,000  maps of major cities and regions throughout the world. Recently Georeferenced maps can be viewed by image or by location.

Klokan Technologies developed Georeferencer with the Moravian Library. You can combine and compare maps found at the Georeferencer pages at the National Library of Scotland and the British Library with maps from our collection in Georeferencer, just use your Login at those two online libraries Georeferencer pages and make Favorites of maps found there. Those maps will then show up in your Favorites list here and at those libraries as well.

San Francisco Airport Exhibits Maps from Rumsey Collection

Maps of San Francisco from the David Rumsey Collection will be exhibited at the San Francisco International Airport Museum from December 14, 2013 to October 1, 2014. Over 30 maps, views, and photographs document the extraordinary growth of San Francisco from the gold rush village of 1849 to the 20th century metropolis it became. The exhibit will be in the airport exhibition gallery in Terminal 2 (Virgin America and American Airlines), beyond security. The exhibit combines the original maps with digital representations, including videos and Google Earth overlays. View a selection of the exhibit maps at the airport online exhibit and read the press release. You can also view all the maps used in the exhibit on davidrumsey.com

From the exhibition catalog:"San Francisco was at once improbable and inevitable. Much of the land at the northern tip of this hilly peninsula consisted of windswept sand dunes and was frequently blanketed with a cold fog during its summer season. But its location at the entrance to the largest natural harbor on the Pacific Coast, a series of auspicious events, and consecutive generations of citizens boldly reinventing their home on their own terms all combined to produce a city considered by many of its residents and visitors to be one of the world’s finest only fifty years after its founding. By all accounts, the transition of this sleepy village clinging to the shoreline of a sheltered cove to a boisterous, thriving metropolis was sudden. Charts, maps, and illustrated views document the remarkable pace of San Francisco’s early development in the latter half of the nineteenth century and its perpetual state of transformation throughout the twentieth century."

Smithsonian and ESRI use Rumsey Maps in New Time Viewer

The online Smithsonian Magazine has partnered with Allen Carroll and Bern Szukalski at ESRI's story maps to create urban history time viewers showing changes in the growth of six American cities using georeferenced maps from the Rumsey Collection (you can read the text of the Smithsonian articles but for links to the interactive maps, use the links below, the links in the articles no longer work).

In addition to the Map of New York below, five other cities are shown: Chicago in 1868, Denver in 1879, Los Angeles in 1880, Washington D.C. in 1851, and San Francisco in 1859.

Below are two images of Colton's 1836 Map of New York City compared to a modern satellite image, using the "spyglass" map viewer created by the ESRI map story team. You can switch between the old map and the modern map as a base, using the "Swap Views" button in the upper right corner. Pan by dragging the whole map. See the live interactive viewer here.

You can see more ESRI story maps on other topics and themes here.

DPLA Announces Partnership with Rumsey Map Collection

The Digital Public Library of America (DPLA) is partnering with the David Rumsey Map Collection to provide online access to tens of thousands of significant historical maps and images. As part of the relationship, David Rumsey will provide metadata for over 38,000 maps and images (Note: as of 2018, over 82,000 maps and images), making the entirety of his notable online collection instantly accessible via the DPLA website and API­.

The Eagle Map of the United States. 1833. Joseph and James Churchman, Philadelphia. In: Rudiments of National Knowledge, Presented To The Youth Of The United States, And To Enquiring Foreigners, 1833.

A couple of prominent examples of items from the Rumsey collections available through the DPLA are The Eagle Map of the United States, produced by Joseph and James Churchman, Philadelphia, 1833, (view on the DPLA), and the Map of Lewis and Clark’s Track, Across the Western Portion of North America, produced in 1814 (view on the DPLA). Other noteworthy items from Rumsey’s collections range from maps found in historic atlases to images of three-dimensional objects such as globes.

“I am very excited to have my digital library of historical maps added to the DPLA,” Rumsey said. “Maps tell stories that complement texts, images, and other resources found in the growing DPLA library. And the open content policies of my online library fit perfectly with DPLA’s mission to make cultural resources freely available to all. I see DPLA as reinvigorating the role of public libraries in educating children and adults in the digital age. I hope that my participation can serve as an example to others with private collections to share them with the public through the DPLA. Private collectors have always helped to build libraries and now they can do the same with digital cultural assets.”

“David Rumsey’s incredible collection of historical maps is one of the great private collections in the United States,” added DPLA Executive Director Dan Cohen. “What he has been able to assemble and make broadly available is simply astonishing. It is an honor to have these maps as part of the DPLA, and together to help others discover what their communities looked like in the past. We thank David for his generosity.”

Rumsey, President of Cartography Associates, a digital publishing company based in San Francisco, began building a collection of North and South American historical maps and related cartographic materials in 1980. His collection, with more than 150,000 maps, is one of the largest private map collections in the United States. In 1995, Rumsey began the task of making his collection public by building the online David Rumsey Historical Map Collection. Currently the online web site has over 38,000 high-resolution images of maps from his collection.

In 2009, Rumsey committed to donating his entire collection – both physical and digital – to Stanford University, which is currently creating an all-new Map Center to house it.

Rumsey’s online collection of maps is free to the public and is updated monthly. All of the online maps are searchable via the DPLA.

About the Digital Public Library of America

The Digital Public Library of America brings together the riches of America’s libraries, archives, and museums, and makes them freely available to the world. It strives to contain the full breadth of human expression, from the written word, to works of art and culture, to records of America’s heritage, to the efforts and data of science. The DPLA aims to expand this crucial realm of openly available materials, and make those riches more easily discovered and more widely usable and used. More information is online at https://dp.la.

About the David Rumsey Map Collection

The David Rumsey Map Collection was started over 25 years ago and contains more than 150,000 maps. The collection focuses on rare 18th and 19th century maps of North and South America, although it also has maps of the World, Asia, Africa, Europe, and Oceania. The collection includes atlases, wall maps, globes, school geographies, pocket maps, books of exploration, maritime charts, and a variety of cartographic materials including pocket, wall, children’s, and manuscript maps. Items range in date from about 1700 to 1950s.

PBS NewsHour Story links Apple, Google, and Historical Maps

The October 31, 2012 edition of the PBS NewsHour had a story by Spencer Michels on the competition between Apple and Google map services, and it included an interview with David Rumsey on the "cartographic continuum" between old paper maps and new digital maps.

Here is the story on Apple vs Google maps with excerpts from the Rumsey interview:

And the full interview with David Rumsey from  the NewsHour website:

Joshua Jelly-Shapiro on the Revolution in Cartography

The September 2012 issue of Harper's Magazine has a very interesting article by Joshua Jelly-Shapiro titled "All Over The Map - A Revolution in Cartography." Jelly-Shapiro reviews two recent books, "Maphead" by Ken Jennings and "Infinite City" by Rebecca Solnit. He also discusses the David Rumsey Map Collection along with technological innovations that are revolutionizing cartography and our understanding of space and place.

Stanford Gives Howell Award to David Rumsey

On May 18, 2012, David Rumsey received the Warren R. Howell Award from the Stanford University Libraries in recognition of his service to Stanford. Fine press printer Peter Koch designed a commemorative booklet for the occasion:

New Geographical Search by MapRank Viewer

The new MapRank Search viewer enables geographical searching of the collection by map location and coverage, in a Google Map window. Pan and zoom the Google Map to the area of the world you want maps of, and the results will automatically appear as a scrollable list of maps with thumbnail images in the right side results window. The maps in the right side results list are ranked by coverage, with the maps that have coverage closest to your search window listed at the top. Maps lower in the list show the area of interest, but with coverage that does not match as closely. Mousing over any map in the list will show the map's coverage as a light red rectangle on top of the Google Map. Clicking on a map in the list will open it in the Luna Browser. You can filter your results with the When timeline, the What or Who keyword text window, and the Map scale windows, as well as search by place name in the Find a place window. Currently about 12,000 online maps are searchable with MapRank search; soon all the 27,000 online maps will be included. Launch MapRank Search.

Below is the MapRank Search viewer zoomed in to find maps of San Francisco, with the 1904 "San Francisco Intensity of Earthquake" map highlighted in red in the results list and with the area covered by the earthquake map shown in light red on the Google Map:

Clicking on the thumbnail or title of a map in the list opens it in the Luna Browser with a zoomable image and description:

Zooming out in the Google Map selection window instantly changes the search results to find maps with similar coverage, here the San Francisco Bay Area and Central California:

Zooming out further in the Google Map window changes the map results again to maps of California:

Here the Google Map is set to find maps of the American West:

Zooming out and panning east finds maps of the entire United States:

Zooming out again finds maps of North and South America:

Finally, zooming out to the full extent in the Google Map window finds maps of the entire World:

The WHEN time range line allows changing the dates of the results, here from 1690 to 1795 for the same set of World maps:

The Map scale boxes are used to limit the range of scales of the search, here set at 1:2,500 to 1:2.5 mil. This setting will show maps with smaller coverages that fall within the Google Map at the top of the list:

The Find a place box is used here to zoom the Google Map to find maps of Paris, France:

The WHAT or WHO box is used to further limit results to maps of Paris by Guillaume De Lisle:

Zooming out to show all of France finds maps by De Lisle of French provinces, still limited by time and scale:

Finally, keeping the same limits but panning the map to Italy finds maps of Italy by De Lisle with the same time and scale constraints:

This new MapRank search interface allows geographical and spatial searching of the map collection in a dynamic and fluid way. It will provide an entirely new experience of exploring our online map library, using a map to search the collection instead of relying on textual terms alone.

While the new search interface is largely complete, please let us know if you find any errors or problems. The bounding coordinates for the maps are correct in almost all cases, but there may be some maps with incorrect coordinate (coverage) data - please let us know if you find any and we will correct them. The MapRank search interface and program has been developed by Petr Pridal of Klokan Technologies.

Landmark 1979 California Water Atlas Debuts Online

Originally published in 1979, The California Water Atlas, a monument of 20th century cartographic publishing, has been scanned and put online for free public access by the David Rumsey Map Collection. Linda Vida, Director of The Water Resources Center Archives of the University of California asked David Rumsey and Cartography Associates to scan and make available to the public this extraordinary book. The copyright holder, the California Governor's Office of Planning and Research, agreed to allow free public access online. 

The book was digitized at very high resolution so the resulting images can be explored, revealing all the amazing detail in the many diagrams, maps, and illustrations that accompany the extensive text. The original work was a collaborative effort involving many individuals in and outside the government of then Governor Edmund G. (Jerry) Brown, Jr., including William L. Kahrl, Project Director and Editor; William A. Bowen, Cartography Team Director; Stewart Brand,  Advisory Group Chairman; Marlyn L. Shelton, Research Team Director; David L. Fuller and Donald A. Ryan, Principal Cartographers; and many others who contributed to the project. 

The atlas may be viewed in three formats online: in the LUNA Browser of the David Rumsey online collection, in a Flip Book Reader at the Internet Archive, and in three PDF files, low (46MB), medium (72(MB), and high (180MB) resolution (For the PDF's, Firefox or Chrome are recommended since they support PDF progressive download; IE and Safari will download the PDF's but only show them at the end). All files can also be downloaded from the Internet Archive site.  When viewing the atlas online, it is best to use as big a screen as possible because the original book is large, 47cm high and 41cm wide (82cm wide when opened to two page view).

Use of the digital files is free for all personal, non-commercial uses, governed by a Creative Commons License. All the scanning, metadata creation, uploading to LUNA and to the Internet Archive was done by David Rumsey and fellow Cartography Associate colleagues Dan Holmes and Kristian McManus. 

When the atlas came out in 1979, it got rave reviews from both historians and scientists. Charles Wollenberg, writing in the California Historical Quarterly, called it "a very big and beautiful book...well-written, spectacularly illustrated, and filled with useful information for expert and layman alike...an indispensable sourcebook for decades to come." The Quarterly Review of Biology said it was "a major reference work of interest to applied ecologists concerned with water supply and usage and to ecologists in general in California." Over 30 years old, the atlas is still fresh and germane to today's issues and no doubt will be so for a long time to come.

Below are selected pages from The California Water Atlas:

Below are all the pages of The California Water Atlas - click on any page to open it in a full window.

New davidrumsey.com Website Redesign

For the first time since its launch in 1999, the www.davidrumsey.com website has been completely redesigned and updated.  With better navigation and structure, users will find it easier to explore the site's many viewers and collection database with over 21,000 maps online.  A new Blog has been added to the site, and includes entries for Recent Additions, News, Featured Maps, Related Sites, and Videos.  Over 200 historic maps from the collection can be viewed in a new browser-based version of Google Earth (discontinued by Google in 2016), and users can enter the Second Life version of the map collection directly from a dedicated Second Life portal page on the site.  And the collection ticker at the bottom of the home page shows the entire online map library in random order over about 10 hours.  As always, all maps can be downloaded for free directly from the site at full resolution.  And a new service from Pictopia allows purchase of reproductions of any map in the collection directly from the new LUNA viewing software. 

The redesigned Home page of the website:

The View Collection page shows the many viewers used to explore the map collection online:

The new Blog section of the website has posts on Recent Additions, News, Featured Maps, Related Sites, and Videos:

The new website was designed by Michelle Williamson of Command Create.  Development by Bot & Rose and Adam Brin.  Hosting by Luna Imaging.

David Rumsey Donates 150,000 Maps to Stanford University

David Rumsey will give his map collection and digital library to Stanford University over the next five to ten years.  Rumsey will continue to host and build the online map library at www.davidrumsey.com for years to come.

Rumsey Map Islands Open in Second Life

Rumsey Map Islands open in the virtual world of Second Life.  Maps from the collection are rendered in huge scale in this 3D environment.  See the Video of the Opening Talks.

Google Sky Adds Rumsey Celestial Globe

Google Sky (part of Google Earth) adds a new layer for the 1792 Celestial Globe by Giovanni Cassini, from the David Rumsey Map Collection.  Read the Astronomy Magazine Blog about the new feature.

Google Earth Adds Rumsey Historical Maps Layer

Google Earth launches a group of maps from the David Rumsey Map Collection in their 3D Globe. Read an article in PC Magazine, read the Google Earth Press Release, or read David Rumsey's entry in the Google Blog.

MIT Technology Review on David Rumsey's work

MIT's Technology Review discusses David Rumsey's historical map collection and highlights his work on remixing Lewis and Clark's published map of their journey. View the georeferenced (GIS) Lewis and Clark map in 2D GIS and 3D GIS.  Click on the image below to view in the LUNA Browser.

San Francisco Chronicle Interviews David Rumsey

Read the article that appeared on September 27, 2004 in the San Francisco Chronicle, about Rumsey's work and his book with Edith Punt, Cartographica Extraordinaire.

O'Reilly 2004 OSCON Conference features Rumsey talk on "Open Content: How Online Digital Libraries will Provide Access to Cultural Information in the 21st Century."

David Rumsey gave a Keynote Address to the July 26-30, 2004 O'Reilly Open Source Conference in Portland, Oregon.  Read reviews on ZDNet, O'Reilly, Jon Udell, and Jason Gilmore.

MAPPING AMERICA - Treasures from David Rumsey Historical Map Collection on Display at the San Francisco International Airport June 2003 - January 2004

A selection of over one hundred  rare and unique maps from the David Rumsey Historical Map Collection are on display through January 2004 at the San Francisco International Airport. The exhibit explores themes of mapping exploration, settlement, travel, geology, navigation, military campaigns, railroads, and cities.  Read an article in Spatial News about the exhibit.

Pictured above is a first edition map from 1814 of Lewis and Clark's track across the Western portion of North America. Below it is a map from 1810 of the upper Mississippi River Valley by Zebulon Montgomery Pike.	Among the treasures from the collection is an 8 by 8 foot wall map by Henry Popple from 1733. Once owned by King George II, as indicated by the seal in the upper right detail, this  map was regarded as the most accurate of its day.
The exhibit combines the physical maps and books with digital representations and videos of map details and also allows the viewing of maps not included in the exhibit.	The installation includes 74 maps, atlases, guidebooks and charts from David Rumsey's private map collection, which numbers more than 150,000 pieces.

UC Berkeley East Asian Library and David Rumsey Collaborate to Launch Japanese Historic Maps Online Library

The new website, Japanese Historical Maps from the collections of the East Asian Library at UC Berkeley has opened in February of 2003.  The Japanese Historical Map Collection contains about 2,300 early maps of Japan and the World. The collection was acquired by the University of California from the Mitsui family in 1949, and is housed on the Berkeley campus in the East Asian Library. Represented in this online collection are over 1,100 images of maps and books from this Collection. The maps were selected by Yuki Ishimatsu, Head of Japanese Collections at the East Asian Library, and scanned and put online by David Rumsey and Cartography Associates. The project was initiated by Peter Zhou, Director of the East Asian Library. Funding and project management is provided by Cartography Associates and the East Asian Library.

David Rumsey Map Collection Wins Webby Award in Technical Achievement

The International Academy of Digital Arts & Sciences selected The David Rumsey Historical Map Collection as the winner for Outstanding Technical Achievement at The 6th Annual Webby Awards.

Hailed as "the only awards for Internet sites that matter" by the Los Angeles Times, winners of the 6th Annual Webby Awards were announced at a special ceremony Tuesday evening in San Francisco. In addition to Rumsey's site, winners ranged from global giants like the BBC, which was honored in two categories for Best News and Best Radio, Google for Best Practices and The Osbournes for Best Television.

"This year's winners and nominees surely live up to the title 'world wide'," said Tiffany Shlain, founder and director of the awards. "The Webby Awards are proud to honor the Web sites that are setting the standards for the medium and bringing the world online.

Webby Awards were handed out in 33 categories, including Film, Activism and Humor. In keeping with Webby tradition, winners were once again held to five-words-or-less acceptance speeches. In his acceptance speech, Rumsey said, "Maps are ultimate eye candy."

David Rumsey to Distribute The AMICO Library for Higher Education and Scholarly Use

The Art Museum Image Consortium (AMICO) and Cartography Associates, owned by map collector David Rumsey, signed a distribution agreement that provides online access to The AMICO Library™ for the Fall 2002 school year using Luna Imaging's Insight® software. The distribution agreement advances the mutual goal of AMICO and David Rumsey to provide a broader range of educational and scholarly users with access to this important collection of artwork that covers all periods of art and contains diverse forms, such as paintings, sculpture, print, drawings, photographs and decorative arts. "David Rumsey's vision coordinates well with AMICO's desire to widen and deepen educational use of museum collections through network technologies," says AMICO's Executive Director Jennifer Trant. "Cartography Associates is a wonderful addition to our growing group of distributors," Trant says. "David Rumsey's experience with online image distribution and his alliance with Luna Imaging are of great interest to AMICO. We hope these connections will help build links to and added functionality for a much broader range of scholarly users of The AMICO Library in communities beyond those we currently serve."

Francesco Laurana (Italian, c.1430-c.1502) Beatrice of Aragon, probably 1470-1479 The Frick Collection, New York, New York, U.S.A. The AMICO Library

2009 Update The AMICO Library is now offered as the AMICA Library from Cartography Associates. For more information visit www.davidrumsey.com/amica.

From Parchment to Ether: Fusing Historical Maps with Web GIS

This article by David Rumsey and Dana Wormer appeared in the former Geospatial Solutions Magazine in the April 1, 2002 issue.  It relates the evolution of the Rumsey online map library into solutions that utilize early forms of Web GIS.

This Is a Real Quest for Maps

The article, This is a Real Quest for Maps, appeared in Wired News on March 7, 2002.  It detailed the early evolution of the map collection and how it became an online Web library.

Museums and the Web 2001 - Paper Presented by David Rumsey, "Historical Map Collection Web Site."

After the first year of operation of the online map library, the paper presents issues surrounding the site's purpose, design, and operation, including meta-data management, digital image creation and preservation, site usage and economics, sharing web based archives, and future directions for online collections.

Mercator's World Magazine Publishes "State of the Art" by Julie Sweetkind-Singer

Julie Sweetking-Singer, former Map Librarian of the Rumsey Collection, published an article about the collection in Mercator's World Magazine. From the article: "Rumsey is encouraged about the future of historic maps. The very existence of high-resolution copies of maps on the Web will bring these beautiful and important materials to the attention of the general public in ways that have not been possible before. To that prospect, Rumsey concludes, 'I think it bodes well for historic maps and their place in society.' "

Rumsey Map Collection Opens Online Map Library

On March 15, 2000, the David Rumsey Map Collection opened its online library website for the first time.  With just over 2,000 images, the online collection represented a cross section of the larger physical map collection and included charts, globes, atlases, pocket maps, exploration books, wall maps, and geographies.  It had two viewers, the Insight Java Client - a downloaded desktop application - and the Insight Browser which ran in a browser window with no download.  Users found the site through Web search engines and several articles that appeared in the first month of operation - the site was chosen as Yahoo Pick of the Week (which brought over 10,000 visitors a day and nearly crashed the site) and it appeared in Wired Magazine, and D-Lib Magazine.