With over 150,000 historical maps in his private collection, David Rumsey stands as the most prominent map collector in the world. His dedication to preserving and sharing cartographic history has made him a leading figure in the intersection of art, history, and digital technology. Over the last two decades, he has digitised more than 55,000 maps, making them freely accessible to the public through the David Rumsey Map Collection online archive.
In 2014, MOVA International reached out to Rumsey with an idea — to bring one of his historical maps to life as a rotating globe. The result? The stunning Antique Cassini White MOVA Globe, which became an immediate favourite and even took home the 2015 Luxury Gift of the Year Award from the UK’s Giftware Association.
We spoke with David Rumsey to learn more about his fascination with maps, his thoughts on working with MOVA, and the timeless beauty of historic cartography.
Interview with David Rumsey
What first got you into the world of maps and geography?
I’ve been in it so long it’s hard to remember. All my life, I’ve enjoyed maps. When I was a child I was exposed to contemporary maps. They are a representation of three-dimensional space and a translation of the world.
I collected contemporary maps during my growing up years and early twenties, and sometime in my thirties I began to stumble across old maps.
For me they were a visual history. They show visually what we read about in textbooks. Documenting old maps is a great craft. They represent science, history, measuring space, navigating, and art — everything all rolled into one.
Tell us more about your collection.
I’ve been building this collection for over 35 years. Being a collector is about assembling things that fascinate you in a specific kind of order. When I collect, I try to make sense of what it is and what it was.
It’s important to have good descriptions when cataloging items — dimension, scale, date — while also giving context to the map. I collect related objects such as globes by the same maker or other maps connected to their work.
I’ve done four exhibits with airports and am giving all the maps to Stanford University. They are building a map center on the 4th floor of its library, which will house both the maps and MOVA Globes. This ensures long-term preservation and accessibility for scholars and the general public.
Why is digitizing your collection so important?
As of now we have over 55,000 maps digitized and online. I really like getting things out into the world. That’s why I thought it was a fabulous idea to get them onto MOVA Globes and into the hands of other people.
Partnerships with MOVA and open-access online content will hopefully expose more people to these maps.
To digitize the maps, we used high-resolution scanners and digital photography. We then georeferenced and georectified them to create accurate globes.
This process involves aligning historical maps with modern geographic data using reference points. Everything starts as a TIFF image, becomes a GeoTIFF, and is then mapped onto a globe — allowing a round world to be projected from a flat surface.
What makes Cassini a notable cartographer?
Cassini trained with one of the best engravers of his time, Francesco Piranesi, and learned the art of engraving from a master.
He brought together all the essential elements — great engraving, up-to-date historical knowledge, scientific precision, and geographic accuracy. When we georeferenced his globe and placed it into Google Earth, we were astonished at how accurate it was, especially in the relationship between continents like South America and Africa.
What’s interesting about the routes and discoveries shown on the Cassini map?
Cassini was fascinated with Captain James Cook, and the map depicts his three voyages with lines tracing his sailing routes. Much of the geography reflects Cook’s observations and theories.
For example, Antarctica is absent because Cook did not believe it existed. The map also shows a very young United States.
Cassini focused heavily on the science behind mapmaking. His globe includes measurements such as the length of a degree and even an ecliptic marking that shows where the Sun’s rays hit Earth throughout the year — a level of detail many globe makers did not include.
Cassini published the globe gores in his atlas of the world and also produced 12-inch diameter globes. Today, very few original globes exist — with only about seven known pairs of celestial and terrestrial globes remaining.
For more information, explore David Rumsey’s blog posts on digitizing maps and Giovanni Maria Cassini.
