Matthew Edney

As OML Faculty Scholar, Matthew has worked since 1995 to develop the collections, to interpret them, and to help the staff and the library’s readers understand various aspects of maps and their history. Although not formally a member of the OML staff, he has worked alongside the librarians to shape and organize their activities. He founded OML’s website and has created much of its content. He has curated several OML exhibitions, and organized several academic conferences. And he has offered many guest classes on map topics to a wide variety of courses (see below for a listing).

As Osher Professor in the History of Cartography and professor of Geography, Matthew teaches courses for USM undergraduates in maps and map history.

Matthew is a prominent map historian, with an international reputation. He is currently:

• chair of the International Society for the History of the Map;
• president of the American Friends of the J. B. Harley Research Fellowships, Inc.;
• trustee of the J. B. Harley Research Fellowships Trust, in the U.K.;
• director of Imago Mundi, Ltd., also in the U.K., which publishes the main journal in the field and sponsors the biannual International Conferences on the History of Cartography; and
• member of the International Cartographic Association’s Standing Commission on the History of Cartography.

Moreover, Matthew has since 2005 directed the History of Cartography Project at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. The Project prepares the volumes of the award-winning series, The History of Cartography. All four of the series’ published volumes (1, 2.1, 2.2, 2.3, 3, and 6) are available for free access from the publisher, the University of Chicago Press. Volume Four, Cartography in the European Enlightenment, which covers the period 1650–1800 and which Matthew coedited with Mary Pedley, is in press and will appear in print and as an e-book in late 2019.