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Save This PageCHARLOTTESVILLE - Maps can be works of art.
Some are beautifully engraved or hand-colored while others are finely drawn and elaborately illustrated. Some ancient maps tell the history of exploration, how things were back when much of the earth was a mystery.
Now the University of Virginia has what it calls one of the finest map collections in the world.
Seymour I. Schwartz, distinguished alumni professor in the University of Rochester's Department of Surgery, recently pledged his collection of rare and historic maps to the U.Va. library.
The librarians were, of course, thrilled.
"There's a lot of firsts and mosts in this collection." said Mercy Quintos, the U.Va. library's exhibits coordinator.
"Dr. Schwartz brought more than just a collector's sensibility. There's a real scholarly understanding here."
The collection of 16th-, 17th-and 18th-century maps includes:
The maps are fascinating in how they show a creeping understanding, from 1500 to 1700, of what the then unknown world and especially the North American continent looked like.
The worth of the collection is unknown.
"Obviously it's very valuable,'' Quintos said. "I couldn't even begin to take a guess as to its value."
Schwartz, 80, doesn't even want to hear questions about the worth of the maps he collected for more than 40 years. All he'll say is that the collection he started in 1964 didn't cost much then, relatively speaking.
"There just weren't many collectors," he said.
Schwartz began acquiring maps through a bit of serendipity. "It's a simple story,'' he said. His late wife, Ruth, wanted him to get a hobby to offset his intense focus on surgery. Schwartz became hooked after she bought a used book on cartography, titled "Maps and Mapmakers," for 50 cents. Before that, Schwartz said, he hadn't even heard the word cartography.
That passion led the man who became the founding editor-in-chief of the popular textbook "Principles of Surgery" to also become the author of five books about historic maps including "The Mismapping of America" and most recently "Putting America on the Map."
Schwartz decided to give the collection to U.Va. after seeking information from a number of schools. He chose U.Va. "because it's steeped in the tradition of American history.''
And he wanted the collection to remain whole. "My feeling was I would want the maps to be kept as a thematic unit so that scholars could use them."
His son Kenneth is a U.Va. architecture professor, which Schwartz said was also a factor.
"I think this collection is a graphic representation of that segment of history of the United States, rather than a narrative. You see history," Schwartz said of his collection.
Schwartz said maps moved him intensely. He loved looking at the maps in his collection every day. He appreciated their beauty and historical meaning and even holding them.
"It's almost a religious experience," he said.
So he admits to some regret in giving his maps away, but his children don't have his passion for maps. He believes selling the collection would be inappropriate. And, he said. "I'm not immortal."
Now the maps can be seen by not only scholars and students but by the public. About 50 of the maps are currently on display in a room at the school's special collection library. The exhibit will be on display until January.
