According to Rumsey and Punt, it is an “attempt to see the digital wizardry of GIS not as a break from the past and old mapping traditions, but intrinsically and essentially as part of those traditions, as another branch in a family tree.” This goal is definitely achieved, both in general and graphically, in the form of two digital maps. The goal of the book is to explore how cartography as it was practiced in the past is important to the way maps are made today, specifically to geographic information systems (GIS). It is both an exhibition catalog of highlights from his collection and a thumbnail cartographic history of the discovery, exploration, and development of the Americas from roughly 1730 to 1930.

As part of his continuing effort to bring the wealth of his collection to the public, Rumsey has written a large-format book, Cartographica Extraordinaire: The Historical Map Transformed, co-authored with Edith Punt. His collection numbers more than 150,000 items, and he has placed 10,000 images of his maps online (com). Collectors of maps have an intimate knowledge of this fascination, and David Rumsey is clearly a map collector of the first rank. When I show rare materials to students and other groups, the maps we encounter often elicit a collective indrawn breath, a palpable focusing of attention and scrutiny.

Cartographica extraordinaire