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Date: Wed, 24 Jan 2001 08:44:30 -0500 (Eastern Standard Time)
From: Mark Thomas <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: Re: Soil Maps <fwd>
Sender: Mark Thomas <[log in to unmask]>


> Date: Tue, 23 Jan 2001 12:00:36 -0800
> From: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: Soil Maps
>
>      I am thinking of applying for a grant to preserve our large
> collection of old county soil maps from the U.S. Bureau of
> Chemistry and Soils.  We have over 600 of these maps dating from
> ca. 1900-1940.
>
>      I would like to know if other libraries have made efforts
> to preserve these maps, and if others think the preservation of
> a collection like ours would be worthwhile.

Are you talking about the soil survey maps that were folded in
the reports at the SuDoc call number A 57.38:[date]/[cutter]?
These are great maps for historical research because
of the early 20th century cultural features on them.  North
Carolina, like many states, was only partially covered by USGS
15 minute maps, so these fill in some gaps for that time period.
I guess ours have been used mostly by local historians and
genealogists as well as some of the environmental science or
public policy folks interested in changes in land use over the
years. I'd think they'd be useful at schools with architecture
or planning depts.

We have only North Caolina counties for that time.  Currently,
they're kept in several places, and a long term project of mine
is to do some sort of inventory and consolidate the locations.
There are multiple copies of many, but sometimes a county will
only be in one location or another, so no one location has all
NC counties.

1. G Schedule. These have been removed from the surveys and are
all encapsulated in polyester film.
2. On linen in a random "mystery" drawer labeled something like
"North Carolina Soil Surveys."  These must have been removed
from the surveys years ago and glued to linen and put in a large
binder of some sort (each is folded a couple of times to a
standard size). Later removed from the binder.
3. Loose ones, not encapsulated or on linen. Removed from the
surveys but never classed.  Many are recent gifts. These are
stored in the same drawer as #2.
4. Still folded in the original Soil Surveys at A 57.38: with
our US Federal documents.

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Mark Thomas / [log in to unmask] / 919-660-5853, fax:919-684-2855
Map and GIS Librarian / Economics Bibliographer
Public Documents and Maps Department
025 Perkins Library / Duke University, Durham, NC 27708-0177

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