David Rumsey Map Collection

Cartography Associates, San Francisco, United States

Chase, Ernest Dudley. Japan, the target : a pictorial Jap-map, 1942. Pictorial map, 56 cm x 37 cm. David Rumsey Map Collection.

Description A descriptive note detailing the content and context of the digital collection.

Started more than 30 years ago by Cartography Associates, the David Rumsey Map Collection “focuses on rare 16th through 20th century maps of North and South America, as well as 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”. Their digital collection contains more than 61,000 images, where users can search or browse by types, locations and periods. The website also provides many ways to view the map collections, such as Luna Browser, Georeferencer, Google Earth, etc. Learn more about the evolution of the physical collection into the online collection here.

Collection Type Broad terms that define the type of digital collection

Web Image Archives and Compilations, Contain Both Copyrighted and Public Domain Images

Subject Broad terms or phrases that describe, identify, or interpret the digital image collection and what it depicts or expresses. Values were obtained using the Art and Architecture Thesaurus (AAT) by the Getty Research Institute.

Americas, Asian, Cartography (discipline), European, World maps, World Wars

Style Period Terms that define the styles, art periods, movements, etc. whose characteristics are represented in digital image collection. Values were obtained using the Art and Architecture Thesaurus (AAT) by the Getty Research Institute

Vintage (period)

Work Types Terms that identify the kinds of works in the digital collection being described. It typically refers to a work’s physical form, function, or medium in digital image collection. Values were obtained using the Thesaurus For Graphic Materials (TGM) by Library of Congress.

Illustrations, Maps

Openness Openness of the digital collection determined using the 4R activities by Wiley (2010).

Allow Reuse, Redistribute, Revise and Remix for educational and non-commercial purposes

Notes on Usage Additional notes on the terms of use on the digital images in the collection.

The maps are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-ShareAlike (CC BY-NC-SA 3.0) license. Images “may be reproduced or transmitted, but not for commercial use“. Citation is required but no format is stated in their terms of use. The images can be cited by including creator, title of image, year of creation, medium, physical dimensions, source and url of image.

e.g. Chase, Ernest Dudley. Japan, the target : a pictorial Jap-map, 1942. Pictorial map, 56 cm x 37 cm. David Rumsey Map Collection. Accessed on July 15, 2015 from http://www.davidrumsey.com/luna/servlet/s/7l5gqc.

For more information on acknowledging images with other citation styles, refer here.

Please check their About Page for full details before using images.

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