Map Collection, NYU Abu Dhabi Library
Call Number
Date
Creator
Extent
Language of Materials
Arrangement
Most of the maps in this inventory have been cataloged, and have corresponding bibliographic records in the library catalog of New York University. This finding aid was created to enable easier access to the contents of the collection as a whole, and to aid the browsability of the collection.
While most of the maps are physically arranged in storage by library classification numbers (Library of Congress classification numbers), or grouped together by their size, the arrangement used in this inventory groups the maps by geographic regions, and then within those categories, alphabetically by the names of the map creators. While the map title, creator, date of creation, publication information, and dimensions are recorded here, further information about individual maps may be found in the corresponding bibliographic records in the NYU Libraries catalog.
Scope and contents
The Map Collection of the NYU Abu Dhabi Library was begun in 2014, following the establishment of the Archives and Special Collections department in library of the university's newly-opened Saadiyat Campus. As such, the collection was designed to be one of five core areas of Special Collections in the library, with an emphasis on preserving and making accessible rare or unique maps depicting the Arabian Peninsula, the Arabian Gulf, surrounding areas of the Middle East and the Indian Ocean rim.
One key area of early collecting has been that of maps from European cartographers, demonstrating the evolving understanding of the region from the 16th through the early 19th centuries. Driven by expanded commerce with South and East Asia during these centuries, and a corresponding need for more accurate maps and charts of the regions that merchants passed through, the collection contains examples of maps that range from late Renaissance era maps largely based on Ptolemaic understandings of the region, including fanciful names of non-existant towns, rivers, or mountain ranges; to those that demonstrate the innovations of 17th century Dutch and French cartography, which provided an increasingly accurate view of the contours of the Arabian Peninsula and surrounding regions, culminating in British works of the early 19th century, the product of a more active British commercial and military presence in the Gulf during that time.
Maps from the 20th century reflect a shift in commercial and military activities in the wider region, showing the impact of two World Wars, as well as the advent of the exploration and extraction of petroleum from countries around the Gulf and the Arabian Peninsula. Maps from the British-led Egyptian Expeditionary Forces that pushed the armies of Ottoman Turkey out of the Levant during World War I, hydrographic charts from the British Royal Navy, as well as maps from German and British forces during World War II, show that while the region was not central to the struggles of the European powers, it was not far from their minds.
With the exploitation of the region's petroleum resources, questions of the demarcation of boundaries became essential, and some maps, such as the U.S. Geological Survey maps of Saudi Arabia from the 1970s, sought to provide a more accurate depiction of previously uncharted parts of the region. As as new states were formed around the Gulf during the mid-to-late 20th century, as well as the rapid development of other countries in the region, maps began to depict the burgeoning national consciousness of countries such as Bahrain or the United Arab Emirates.
Most of the maps in this collection were acquired individually or as groups. However, other relevant maps exist in the Archives and Special Collections department, usually as component parts of archival collections (such as the J.B. Kelly or Chris Kutschera collections), or as component parts of cataloged books or atlases from the Special Collections.