Maps in the repository's collection depict all areas of the world through about 1920 and New Jersey throughout its history. Approximately 8,000 items, both printed and manuscript, comprise the collection. Among the highlights are a copy of the "Admiral's Map," which includes an early representation of the New World, and several dozen nineteenth-century wall maps of New Jersey cities and counties.
Incorporated into the map collection are a large number of maps donated by the estate of book dealer Montagu Hankin and several significant early maps donated by alumnus I. Robert Kriendler.
The repository's printed maps are arranged geographically. A checklist of printed, non-New Jersey maps is available at the New Jersey Room reference desk. These maps must be requested via call slips.
Many printed maps of New Jersey, its regions, counties and municipalities, including most maps acquired through 1980, are listed in Guide to New Jersey Maps in Special Collections and Archives (SNCLNJ GA195.N5C37 1986) available at the New Jersey Room reference desk. An abbreviated edition of the Guide to New Jersey Maps is also available. Unlike the repository's other maps, which must be paged, most of the ones listed in the Guide are directly accessible in two map cases in the New Jersey Room. Printed maps of New Jersey (of all dates) acquired from 1980 to 1994 are held in closed stacks; call slip requests for these uncataloged maps should specify a geographical area. Maps from 1995 and later, plus selected earlier ones, are cataloged in QuickSearch; these, too, must be requested via call slips. Finally, a selection of large, nineteenth century maps of New Jersey regions, counties and municipalities, formerly in poor condition but now conserved, are listed in a finding aid available at the New Jersey Room reference desk. These items, which also must be requested by call slips, are frequently in the form of wall maps and may be viewed only one at a time.
Printed aerial views of New Jersey municipalities that also include street names are included in the map collection and not in the repository's pictorial collection. Approximately two dozen of the New Jersey aerial views held are originals; the numerous others in the collection consist of reduced photostatic reproductions of views held by other libraries. A checklist of the aerial views, which are also known as bird's eye views, is available at the New Jersey Room reference desk; use call slips to request these maps. For many of the aerial views, an online version is available from the Library of Congress.
Manuscript maps of New Jersey, which are frequently in the form of photostatic reproductions and not the original maps, are listed in a separate, geographically-arranged checklist available at the New Jersey Room reference desk. This larger list is supplemented by one describing reproductions of Revolutionary War era maps (maps drawn for General Sir Henry Clinton and maps drawn by Robert Erskine) and reproductions of various Colonial era maps. All of the manuscript maps are stored in closed stacks and must by requested via call slips.
Other collections of maps in the Rutgers University Libraries in New Brunswick and Piscataway are available in the Government Publications area of Alexander Library and at the Library of Science and Medicine.
For further information contact:
Special Collections and University Archives
Rutgers University Libraries
Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey
New Brunswick, NJ 08901-1163