A cartographical book and pamphlet collection being donated to Maynooth library is a boon to future students, writes Eileen Battersby.
One Englishman's man's passion for his subject is yielding a rich bounty for the National University of Ireland, Maynooth, in the form of a unique cartographical book and pamphlet collection.
The material, gathered in the course of a 40-year career by Prof John Andrews, formerly associate professor of Geography at Trinity College Dublin, will be formerly presented to the library at Maynooth on Thursday. The donation - consisting of 700 books, atlases and more than 3,000 pamphlets, journals, articles, catalogues and maps - forms an exciting, comprehensive and original history of cartography.
For Maynooth, it is a gift; for John Andrews, it is the perfect home for his personal geographic library. It is a teacher's collection, not a collector's.
"I wanted my books and papers to be accessible to students; I wanted them to be used, it's a working collection."
Maynooth is the only university on this island which teaches a course in map history with a strong emphasis on local history. The geography department has a fine map collection in Rhetoric House, while the science museum holds a major collection of original surveying instruments, some of which were used during the 19th-century Ordnance Survey.
The departments of history and geography are engaged in an extensive range of multi-disciplinary cartographical research projects. "I think there is always a bit of egotism involved in handing over documents like these," says Prof Andrews, "but there is the practical fact too: here is material that will be useful for students, now and in the years to come."
Practicality has always been a hallmark of his scholarship. It was Andrews who saw that countries with dramatic changes in land ownership imposed from abroad tended to place a priority on quality mapping - which explains why Ireland was better mapped than England. Author of A Paper Landscape: the Ordnance Survey in 19th century Ireland, (Oxford, 1975; Four Courts Press, 2002), Andrews, an authority on cartographic history, is internationally acknowledged as a pioneering figure in historical geography studies. He is also founder editor, with Anngret Simms, of the Royal Irish Academy's Irish Historic Towns Atlas series.
About two years ago, Prof Andrews decided it was time to start thinking about the future of his life's collection - he wanted to ensure it would be used. He consulted a few colleagues and then made tentative inquiries to find out if any library was interested in some or all of his library. The response from Maynooth was immediate. The president of Maynooth, John Hughes, replied the same day, emphasising that the university would be thrilled to be considered.
Librarian Agnes Neligan says: "this was a special offer, the collection is so specific to its subject and obviously we were pleased that Prof Andrews preferred not having the collection spilt - and we wanted it all."
Geographer Dr Jacinta Prunty, director of the maps and history course, remembers the excitement. "We knew the sheer quality and range of the Andrews collection. There are many specialist items that only an expert would have been able to source and identify."
It is not an antiquarian collection. Instead, there are texts and reference works mainly in English with a smaller number in French, German, Polish and Dutch. Several important US books, not common to European libraries, are also included. Alongside Le Cartographie Gerard Mercator (1512-1594), and Mercator's Maps of Europe is a deck of playing cards featuring the counties of England. It was produced as an aid for teaching English school children their native geography.
Surveying is well represented as expected by works such as Robert Gibson's A Treatise of Practical Surveying (1810) and The Draughtsman's Handbook of Plan and Map Drawing (1891). There is a lot of military surveying material. Anything you need to know about the science of map reading is included. Ramblers and boy scout guides also feature.
Andrews the geographer has always believed in the importance of maps and map reading. Geography for him is the landscape and land. In 1985 he published Plantation Acres: An Historical Study of the Irish Land Surveyor and his Maps. It was followed 11 years later with Shapes of Ireland, Maps and their Makers 1564-1839, an entertaining, informative narrative which tells the story of Ireland's mapping from the mid 16th century up until the achievement of the Ordnance Survey.
The donation contains very few original maps: most are facsimiles, photographs and photocopies. His maps were working maps and he also gave many maps, as well as his slide collection, to the department of geography at Trinity where he worked as lecturer and later, as associate professor for 36 years.
Looking at such a collection, shaped as it is by a learned and playful individual imagination, is an adventure. One volume, glorying in the grand title, Surveyors and Statesmen, is an account of land measurement in colonial Virginia. Who could resist The Geographic Lore of the Time of the Crusades? The pamphlet collection is all encompassing; ranging from magazines and brochures, to ephemera such as postcards, posters and travel articles. Prof Andrews wanted an appreciative home for his collection. He has certainly found it.
"We have received a working collection of cartographic riches of immense benefit to our students," says Neligan, "and one that we will continue to add to, not least by the research being published by our own specialist scholars and students working in geographic and related studies."
