NL52 Map Collections

		T H E N E A T L I N E
		T H E N E A T L I N E
		A Newsletter of the Texas Map Society Vol V No 2 Winter 2002

Map Collections in the Lone Star State
By Gerald D. Saxon

In November of 1997, Gerald Saxon, Associate Director of Libraries at the University of Texas at Arlington, reported to the Texas Map Society on a project to canvas a number of the leading map collections in the state. He surveyed holdings of college and university collections, public libraries, state agencies, historical societies, museums, and even private businesses. He then selected five repositories across the state with prominent cartographic collections and made a personal visit to each. His visit to the repositories was as a researcher rather than as a library professional. Because a number of the members of the society have requested this information, we will print excerpts from the Saxon’s presentation as space permits. Today’s report is on the Galveston and Texas History Center at the Rosenberg Library, Galveston, Texas.

The Rosenberg Library is located at 2310 Sealy Avenue in Galveston, Texas. The Galveston and Texas History Center is on the third floor of the Rosenberg Library. There is street parking around the library and a surface parking lot directly across one of the side streets. Center hours are 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., Tuesday through Saturday; closed Sundays and Mondays. The homepage for the Center is www.gthcenter.org .

The Center map collection includes 5,000 maps focusing on Galveston, as it relates to Texas, the Gulf of Mexico, the Caribbean, and adjacent coasts. The maps show Galveston Bay from 1725. They also illustrate European exploration of the New World during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries and the development of Texas during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. There are a number of photostatic copies in the collection, making it a research collection more than anything else. Additions to the collection are by donation and very rarely does the staff purchase maps. Casey Greene, head of the Center, makes acquisition decisions.

Perhaps the most important access tool to the Rosenberg’s map collection is the very fine cartobibliography compiled by Henry G. Taliaferro and edited by Jane Kenamore and Uli Haller entitled, Cartographic Sources in the Rosenberg Library (Texas A&M Press, 1988). The bibliography describes approximately 500 of the Rosenberg’s most important maps. There is also a very fine introductory essay by Taliaferro focusing on the "Early Cartography of the Texas Coast." The map guide is out of date because the Rosenberg has acquired many maps since its publication.

Other access to the map collection is through a card catalog divided into three sections: 1. a general catalog/index arranged alphabetically by proper names, including people, corporate bodies, subjects, and/or locality; 2. maps arranged by date from earliest to the latest; and 3. a shelf list which gives a complete listing of maps by location. The cataloging records do not show full bibliographic descriptions of the maps. Generally they show only title, date, and acquisition number. The map collection, at least those maps acquired before 1988, have been encapsulated and safely housed. Those maps acquired after that date have not. They are not accessible, and there are no access tools for them at this time.

The strength of the collection is found in the maps depicting Galveston, Galveston Island, Galveston County, the Upper Texas Gulf Coast, Texas, and the Gulf of Mexico. The majority of the library’s holdings predate 1900. Among the gems—and there are many—are:

Martin Waldseemüller’s untitled map of the New World from Ptolemy’s Geographia, 1525.
Maps of Galveston and Galveston Bay, including Bahia de Galvez-town, 1809-1819, from the Spanish Navigator, José de Evía. This is the first printed map of Galveston Bay. It is taken from the Portulano de America Septentrionale published in Madrid, 1809-1819.
First plan of the city of Galveston by William Sandusky and published in 1845.
A number of bird’s-eye-view maps of the city in the latter half of the nineteenth century.
Sanborn map volumes of the city published in 1885, 1889, 1899, and 1912.

The numerical strength of the collection is in nineteenth century Texas maps.The collection includes the first edition of Stephen F. Austin’s Map of Texas and Parts of the Adjoining States, 1830; Burr’s Texas, 1835; Bradford’s Texas, 1835; and Jacob De Cordova’s Map of the State of Texas, 1849.