In 1982, staff of the Chicago History Museum packed up almost 1,400 maps and atlases that didn't fit its collection policy; a portion of the collection which was purchased last year for $120,000 by the Newberry Library will now be made public in an online catalog. According to the Chicago Tribune, the maps purchased by the Newberry range wildly, from eighteenth-century maps of Boston, New Orleans and the Ohio Valley to street maps from the 1970s.
Among the rarer items are a 1675 map of Newfoundland, the manuscript map of the Ohio Valley dating from the 1790s, and two large colored DeCordova maps of Texas from 1857 and 1860.
The Newberry Library's press release notes that the items will all be searchable in its Cartographic Catalog via the phrase "Purchased from the Chicago Historical Society, 2005." Says curator Robert Karrow, "We are so pleased that we were able to work with the Chicago History Museum to keep these wonderfully rich maps here in Chicago for scholars and map enthusiasts to study and enjoy." The library has approximately 300,000 maps in its collections.
The rest of the History Museum's deaccessioned maps have now been sold to other buyers (mainly via auctios at Swann Galleries), netting about $500,000 total for the institution.
