Purchase Storage Materials for the American Geographical Society Library Rare Atlas Collection

FAIN: PA-51567-06

University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee (Milwaukee, WI 53211-3153)
Christopher M. Baruth (Project Director: May 2005 to April 2007)

Purchase of hinged acid-free boxes to rehouse approximately 100 rare world atlases, published between 1570 and 1830, in the collection of the American Geographical Society Library of the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee.

This funding will support the re-housing of approximately 100 of the 2,200 rare atlases in the AGS Library (1478-1900). The emphasis of this project will be selected world atlases published from 1570 to 1830. This is a long-standing priority of the AGS Library and a key recommendation of the NEH funded preservation assessment (April 2004). The AGSL, begun with the Society, in 1851, was transferred to UW-Milwaukee in 1978. It is a vital resource for humanities research. Although considerable effort has recently gone into the preservation of its resources, the results of the absence of preservation funding prior to 1978 are painfully evident. The reversal of this deterioration has become a leading long-term goal of the library.