Now Anyone Can Visit One of the World's Great Map Collections
David Rumsey spent decades collecting more than 150,000 maps, and a new center lets the public explore them like never before.
Stanford, Calif.The new David Rumsey Map Center at Stanford University feels like a secret clubhouse for map lovers. To get there, you pass through a nondescript door in the library and climb two flights of stairs. But it’s not just any stairwell: The walls are painted floor to ceiling with colorful maps.
At the top, glass doors etched with George Montague Wheeler’s 1883 topographical map of Yosemite Valley open into a large room where slowly spinning globes sit atop wood bookcases stuffed with ancient atlases. A wall-sized screen cycles through images of ancient and modern maps.
The center, which opens Tuesday, houses more than 150,000 maps, atlases, and globes collected over several decades by David Rumsey, a San Francisco real estate
