From a British map group, an interesting statement about 'Maps in Parliamentary Papers' cataloging of said maps. See the thread below ... Angie
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From: A forum for issues related to map & spatial data librarianship <[log in to unmask]> on behalf of Andrew Cook <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Monday, October 12, 2020 5:21 AM
To: [log in to unmask] <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: Re: cataloguing maps and plans in British Parliamentary Papers ?
The first publication to follow Susan Gole’s statement in the 1994 Historians’ Guide to Early British Maps was her own Maps of the Mediterranean Regions Published in British Parliamentary Papers 1801-1921 (Nicosia: The Bank of Cyprus Cultural Foundation, 1996). I remember facilitating her use of the India Office Records set of Parliamentary Papers in her work for this in the early 1990s. The India Office Records set was particularly useful as it had lain ‘fallow’ since Indian independence in 1947, and had not suffered the losses and depredations over the years of more heavily consulted sets, such as the set on the open shelves in the State Paper Room of the British Museum. We rapidly came to the realisation that apparently identical copies of the letterpress of a Parliamentary Paper were likely to include copies of maps from different printings, and often entirely different maps.
Parliamentary Papers were chiefly printed in Whitehall basements, each major office of State (Foreign Office, Home Office, Colonial Office, India Office, etc.) having a printing plant furnished by one or other of the major printing firms of the time (Harrison, Waterlow, Eyre & Spottiswoode, etc.). Though the letterpress was done, and type kept standing, ‘in-house’ for speed of production, the lithographic work involved in maps and diagrams appears generally to have been sent back to the parent printing plants for execution, it not being easy to hold quantities of litho plates or stones in a Whitehall basement. When more copies of a map were required in Whitehall for binding with Parliamentary Papers, a new litho plate might have been needed, or a new drawing done, or even a run of an entirely different map supplied. At times of intense demand pressure in one Office, work was passed, through the basement connectors, for a less-pressured adjacent printing plant to execute.
Susan Gole’s admirable initiative of the 1990s ran into the sand, I think, because of the realisation that, for a listing to be complete and authoritative, the compiler would need to examine every volume in every major official set of Parliamentary Papers. A disincentive to pursue this was the British Library decision, on taking the India Office Library and Records into the new British Library building, to immure the relatively pristine India Office set of Parliamentary Papers in store in Yorkshire, while leaving the defective State Paper Room set in London for researchers to use.
The project Martin Dodge would like to see completed is indeed a laudable aim, which I think needs the active and focussed prosecution of someone nearer the start than the end of a career.
Andrew Cook
(Map Archivist, India Office Records, 1974-2012, but all opinions here my own)
Sent from my iPad.
On 12 Oct 2020, at 09:51, Martin Dodge <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
Hello
I was looking through a copy of the 'Historians' Guide to Early British Maps' from 1994 and read the short entry by Susan Gole on 'Maps in Parliamentary Papers'. I was intrigued that she mentions that 'the maps are currently being catalogued for the first time'. I was wondering if anyone knows what became of this cataloguing effort? Was it completed ? Is it available?
I ask because I have often been frustrated trying to find relevant plans in Parliamentary Papers and at times have stumbled across other interesting maps almost by accident when looking at reports on the digitised Proquest Parliamentary Paper site. The search tool on this site do not seem very intuitive or helpful in locating maps. So a proper catalogue would be very useful.
many thanks
Martin Dodge
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Department of Geography
University of Manchester
Oxford Rd
Manchester, M13 9PL
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