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The David Rumsey Historical Map Collection is a large private map collection with over 150,000 maps and cartographic items. The collection was created by David Rumsey who, after making his fortune in real estate, focused initially on collecting 18th- and 19th century maps of North and South America, as this era “saw the rise of modern cartography.”[1]

Collection

Rumsey began collecting maps in 1980.[2] He started digitizing and uploading his collection in 1997[3] and launched his website to display the maps in 1999.[4] In 2001, he became the first person to make GIS freely available to people online with an updated version of his website that let users layer different maps on top of each other.[3] After 2004 Rumsey expanded the collection to include maps from the 16th through 21st centuries, covering more of the world. In 2008 the collection’s website was cited as one of only seven websites with freely available “skillfully compiled carto-bibliographic entries with corresponding early-map images.”[5] At that time the site comprised 16,000 digital images.[5]

As of July 2025, there were over 141,000 digitized items available through the website,[6] hundreds of which were hosted through Google Earth layers. Select maps are also featured at the Rumsey Maps island in Second Life. as well as 2D and 3D GIS. A new MapRank search tool has been added enabling geographical searching of about 60,000 maps from the collection by map location and coverage. In addition, a georeferencing tool has been added that allows site users to georeference and display any of the maps in the collection. The website has additional viewers from Luna Imaging, Inc, including the LUNA browser which doesn’t require any special plug-ins or software to view the collection, zoom into image detail, create slide shows, media groups, or presentations.

The website also has a blog listing new additions to the collection, featured maps, news, videos, and related sites.[citation needed]

When a document is found on the website, it is usually accompanied by extensive metadata, such as author, date of publication, short title, type, dimensions, note(s), area, full title of the document, full title of the publication it may be part of with notes and download options.[7]

David Rumsey Map Center

Map of Paris housed at the map center

In February 2009, David Rumsey announced that the entire collection, the largest on the West Coast,[8] would be donated to Stanford University, including 150,000 maps and their digital images, as well as the database used to track the images.[9] Stanford houses the collection in the new David Rumsey Map Center which opened in the Green Library in 2016.[10][11] The website (where the images are posted on-line) was to continue as a separate public resource.[citation needed] As of 2021, the center housed 250,000 physical maps dating from 1500 to the present as well as and 200,000 digital ones.[12] In addition to globes and atlases (including the first atlas, the Theatrum Orbis Terrarum),[11] there are virtual reality stations.[12]

References

  1. ^ Ganahl, Jane (27 September 2004). “David Rumsey made a living in real estate. Then he charted his future to match his passion: maps”. The San Francisco Chronicle. Archived from the original on 3 June 2012. Retrieved 9 December 2006.
  2. ^ https://www.davidrumsey.com/about/david-rumsey
  3. ^ a b Mayfield, Kendra. “This Is a Real Quest for Maps”. Wired. ISSN 1059-1028. Retrieved 2026-04-15.
  4. ^ Naone, Erica (February 29, 2008). “Technology Review: Historical Maps in Second Life”. MIT Technology Review. Archived from the original on 2009-09-10. Retrieved 2026-04-15.
  5. ^ a b Joel Kovarsky (2008), “Carto-Bibliography on the Web: Links Combining Text and Image”, Imago Mundi, vol. 60, no.1, pp. 93–96. JSTOR 40234119.
  6. ^ “Home”. davidrumsey.com.
  7. ^ E.g.: Caarte Vande Reede ende Haven van Medenblick, hoemen die … by Willem Jansz. Blaeu from 1620
  8. ^ Staff, Take Two. “Stanford’s map center is home to thousands of cartographic gems”. LAist. Retrieved 2026-04-15.
  9. ^ “Maps of Americas past”. Stanford News Service. Stanford University. 4 February 2009. Archived from the original on 12 March 2009. Retrieved 7 May 2009.
  10. ^ Krasny, Michael (2016-06-14). “Stanford Opens Massive Digital Map Archive to Public”. www.kqed.org. Retrieved 2026-04-15.
  11. ^ a b Myrow, Rachael (2016-04-15). “Stanford’s New Map Center Lets You Get Up Close & Personal”. www.kqed.org. Retrieved 2026-04-15.
  12. ^ a b Picon, Andres (2021-12-24). “At Stanford’s David Rumsey Map Center, the past, present and future converge”. San Francisco Chronicle. Retrieved 2026-04-15.