The Island of Lost Maps by Miles Harvey Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 432 pages
The basis of the this handsome looking book is the true story of Gilbert Bland. In 1995 Bland was caught stealing four 200-year-old maps from the Peabody Library of John Hopkins University in Baltimore. Further investigation revealed that 19 libraries across North America had been systematically vandalised. The sad fact is that until Bland was apprehended few if any of these august institutions were aware that these hugely important historic documents were even missing, and even now the FBI are holding nearly 100 stolen maps which are unclaimed.
Most of the libraries had an extraordinarily benign, or rather naïve opinion of the people who use their facilities, an attitude that most retailers wouldn't share. Miles Harvey uses the story of Bland to look at a much broader area of cartography. We get chapters dedicated to the current state of the antique map market, and meet the self described 'biggest map dealer of the 20th century', one W Graham Arader III, who Harvey accompanies to a Sotheby's sale, where the bill comes to US$800,000. He discusses maps in an historical context, and details the investment required to produce a 16th-century map, and how these maps were copied for commercial and strategic reasons. Sir Francis Drake shattered the Spanish hold on the Americas and made smooth passage to the East Indies with captured Spanish maps.
The chapter looking at the current state of the market makes the point that new satellite technologies have resulted in a new hugely productive period, with cartographers holding databases of information that are commercially highly valuable. In the States much of this information is in theory free, despite the huge costs involved in gathering the data. In the UK one still has to pay, though hopefully not quite as much as the £20 million AA had to pay the Ordnance Survey for breach of copyright. Some of the additional material does feel like padding, but overall it is a good, interesting read - and you do not need to be a complete 'cartomaniac' to share Harvey's enthusiasm.
Buy The Island of Lost Maps by Miles Harvey.
Author: Andrew Steed
Date: 1 June 2001