Kaleidoscope

  Atlases and Geographies

          The selections on display are from the recent acquisition of the Murray Hudson Atlas and Geography Collection. The collection consists of 626 items dating from 1736 to 1988. The majorities of the materials come from the 19^th century and constitute a significant addition to the division’s holdings.

      The Hudson Collections is divided into four parts: commercial atlases, school atlases, foreign produced, and special focus atlases. Commercial atlases in the collection include a number of publications from Samuel August Mitchell, George Cram, as well as some of the earliest productions of the Rand McNally Company. The commercial atlases reflect the state of art in map-making in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.

     School atlases were used for teaching history, geography and culture-based studies, and reflect the mores and attitudes of the times. Many of these atlases also were produced by leading cartographic publishing houses and include detailed maps of the nation as well as map exercises for students. 

    Foreign and special focus atlases include European publications as well as titles published in the United States of a thematic nature. Included are items such as touring and road atlases, war atlases from both World War I and World War II, and historic atlases. These atlases reflect the political and diplomatic trends and reveal the changes brought about by the coming of the automobile. 

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