Golda Meir Library. Office for Map History.

In 1986, J. Brian Harley of UWM's Department of Geography proposed the establishment of a "Center for American Cartography." The Center would complement the American Geographical Society Library (AGSL), a unit of the Golda Meir Library, by providing a focus for geographical and historical research and allowing the solicitation of federal and private funds for a number of different cartographical activities. It would be an interdisciplinary center for advanced research on the role of maps and mapping throughout history. Sometime between 1986 and 1987, the name of the proposed institution was changed to the "Office for Map History", to reflect the AGSL's primary purpose as a repository of historical maps. It was officially established in 1987 with support from the Golda Meir Library and the College of Letters and Science. During its short life, the Office's largest project was the mounting of Maps and the Columbian Encounter, an exhibition of 50 original maps from the AGSL, the Newberry Library in Chicago, the James Ford Bell Library at the University of Minnesota, and the William L. Clements Library at the University of Michigan-Ann Arbor. The Office for Map History was dissolved in 1993.