The American Geographical Society Library will conserve rare atlases from its Rare Materials Room thanks to a $25,000 grant from the Gladys Krieble Delmas Foundation. The grant will facilitate the repair of five maritime navigational atlases dating from 1693, and other rare atlases with the balance of funding.
Part of a more than 20,000-item rare collection, the navigational atlases (also called pilots or neptunes) to be conserved include: Le Neptune Francois ou Atlas Nouveau des Cartes Marines, 1693; Suite de Neptune Francois ou Atlas Nouveau des Cartes Marines, 1700; De Nieuwe Groot Licthende Zee-Fakkel, 6th volume, 1753; and The East-India Pilot, and Oriental Navigator, two volumes, 1780.
Navigational atlases came to prominence during the 17th and 18th centuries when European empires expanded with the establishment of companies like the East India Company. The British and Dutch East India Companies were the largest, and they colonized much of south and east Asia during this era. Sea captains and navigators used expensive, utilitarian navigational atlases for exploration – different from the broad-market atlases of the late 18th century. Given their practical applications at sea, the navigational atlases experienced significant wear. Repairs for these folio-size atlases range from cover board replacement to complete rebinding.
Though during the age of their creation, these atlases’ sole purpose was navigation, today they serve as key resources for information on history, colonization, exploration, and, of course, water. Conservation of these rare maritime atlases is one project in the AGSL’s efforts to preserve cartographic resources related to water, such as its vast collection of rare and unique 19th-century nautical charts.
The Gladys Krieble Delmas Foundation, based in New York City, encourages excellence in scholarship and the arts, with one such area of focus being wide access to research library collections. Through the foundation’s grant, the AGSL will ensure the information contained within these rare maritime atlases will live on for hundreds more years. Conservation will be completed by August 2027. The UWM Libraries is grateful for the support.