The Smithsonian Institution, since the earliest days, has sent its researchers on expeditions to fulfill the mission of increasing and diffusing knowledge. These researchers usually relied on maps to plan and guide their quests. Efforts have been made recently to organize the maps that have accumulated over the years. The Maps Catalog website is a result of those efforts. Until recently, this information has only been available within the Smithsonian, but may now be viewed by the general public.
The Maps Catalog currently includes about 14,000 distinct maps covering about 11,000 subjects, with nearly 7000 high resolution images available for viewing. Viewers can search for details about any of the maps, spread across five different collections (Botany, Amphibians & Reptiles, Mammals, African Art and the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center), using four different methods (subject search, geographic search, coordinate search, and advanced search).
The website is the product of the efforts of volunteer Jim Harle (Botany), who was recruited by Rusty Russell in 1994 to curate its maps, organizing them into a collection. Each map has as many as 30 different pieces of information about it entered into the database. Maps that are fragile are put in polyethylene bags. Each map is scanned and the image is cleaned up with Photoshop. Together with over 30 interns, he has cataloged over 9000 of Botany’s approximately 10,000 maps and has expanded to other collections with Entomology coming soon.
Harle has had several fascinating discoveries while digging through various assortments of maps. One discovery had nothing directly to do with maps. While going through maps stored in Botany’s area of the museum’s basement, he came across a manila envelope labeled “Japanese Balloon Fragment.” Inside was documentation and correspondences related to a Japanese effort during World War II to build balloons to carry bombs across the Pacific to land in the United States. Alas, there was no balloon fragment. A few months later, he was digging through a different case in the basement and located the actual balloon fragment. Two years later, Harle tracked down a curator in the National Air and Space Museum who had another balloon fragment that was not in as good shape and lacked any documentation. The curator was quite pleased with Harle’s discovery.
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