-------- Original Message --------
Subject: SFGate: David Rumsey made a living in real estate. Then he
charted his         future to match his passion: maps.
Date: Mon, 27 Sep 2004 10:44 -0700
From: Cynthia Jahns <[log in to unmask]>
Organization: SFGate, San Francisco, CA
To: MAPS-L <[log in to unmask]>

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  This article appears in Monday's San Francisco Chronicle:
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Monday, September 27, 2004 (SF Chronicle)
David Rumsey made a living in real estate. Then he charted his future to
match his passion: maps.
Jane Ganahl


    David Rumsey was nearing 40 and enjoying a successful career in real
estate development when his true calling -- the private obsession that he
had successfully kept in check since boyhood -- finally claimed him.
    "I was at the Argonaut rare-book store on Sutter, and there it was,"
says
Rumsey, a 60-year-old cross between a scholar and a kid in a candy store.
    "It was a little school atlas from 1839. It showed Texas, outlined
in red,
as a separate country. It was about 12 by 18 inches, with copperplate
engraving, all hand-colored, and it even smelled wonderful."
    He sighs at the memory, as if recalling his first love, or his childhood
hobby of wallpapering his bedroom with National Geographic maps.
    "Well, I was hooked."
    Clearly, addiction is the appropriate metaphor. Strolling through the
office/museum in the basement of his San Francisco Victorian, Rumsey is
now surrounded with more than 150,000 objects of his affection: historic
maps. That first child's atlas -- which would become the big bang of one
of the world's largest private collection of maps -- was joined over the
course of the next 20 years by 800 others.
    "I just found them so poignant," he says, noting the handwriting in the
margin by a long-dead child from the 1800s. "They really used these,
carried them with them in their school satchels."
    Needless to say, Rumsey thinks geography is of critical importance for
young people. And he plans to do his part to make learning it fun for kids
-- starting with his 2-year-old granddaughter, Isabella, upon whom he
clearly dotes.
    "Oh, I've already started with the lessons!" he beams. "I think she's
really getting it: Blue is water, green is mountains ..."
    In addition to the geography-lesson volumes, there are also thousands of
rolled-up maps, thousands of flat maps in drawers, thousands of pocket
maps (handily folded in their original portable squares), thousands of sea
charts, 400 volumes on the art of cartography.
    "I bought maps from more than 400 sources," he says. "Dealers knew my
speciality was North and South America, 1700-1900. Those were the
centuries that saw the rise of modern cartography. I had to focus my dates
or it would have gotten a bit overwhelming."
    To a lay person, the obvious question is: Why? "Some people might think
it's an arcane subject, but I disagree. Everyone can relate. Everyone is
curious about where they live. And every map is like a little snapshot of
history; each is a visual history."
    To demonstrate, he pulls out a flat map of the United States' western
territory, made in 1816 by famed cartographer John Mellish. "As you can
see," he says with hushed excitement, tracing a finger lightly across the
delicate parchment, "there is nothing west of the Mississippi River but
Mexico. But the Northwest Territory is all detailed because the map was
created after the Lewis and Clark expedition."
    In fact, California is a vast blank spot compared with the region to its
north, which is resplendent with rivers, mountains, even trees. He notes a
gulf representing the San Francisco Bay, and a thin line that veers from
the east end of the bay toward the northeast.
    "This," Rumsey chuckles, "is where they thought a river might run
from the
San Francisco Bay to Salt Lake."
    Far from dusty and decrepit, Rumsey's maps are all in beautiful shape,
with vibrant color and extreme attention to detail. "These are the
original colors, never enhanced," he says, unfolding and admiring a
"dissected" map, which is hand-drawn on a linen backing and notched for
easy folding. "It's not surprising I was attracted to historic maps, given
my background in art."
    In fact, Rumsey studied and taught photography at Yale, and his own
Hockney-like photo collages adorn the upper levels of his home. But when
he became a father, he decided to get serious about making money. "So I
went into real estate, which was very lucrative at the time." Ten years
after his first map purchase, his collection bursting at the seams, he
retired.
    Since then, his life has been devoted to his collection: cataloging it,
documenting it -- and preparing it to be given away. But therein was a
dilemma.
    "I realized that whichever institution I gave it to would lock it away,
put it on a shelf," he says, with mild indignation. "But just then the
technology came along that would enable me to put it all up online, and it
was obvious that this was the best way I could give it away to the
public."
    So in 1997 he began digitizing his vast collection, and in 1999 launched
www.davidrumsey.com. In true wonk style, Rumsey switched gears from
obsessively collecting to obsessively throwing himself into the
technological aspects of cartography. His main goal was to design a Web
site that featured such high resolution and mobility that clicking on a
map would be like holding it in your hands.
    He discovered Luna Imaging, which is known in academic circles for its
research tools and has ties to the Getty Art History Information Program.
Finding Luna so compatible with his needs, Rumsey eventually joined the
company as its director.
    Once launched, the Web site was off like a rocket, with dazzling, high-
res graphics. "We can scan at 300 psi," he smiles. "All 10,000 maps we
scanned so far are 2.5 terabytes. We use Macs for everything. And we
actually won a Webby in technology -- we beat out Google that year."
    It helps that the Web site is high in the gee-whiz factor. With delight,
Rumsey downloads a topographical map of Yosemite dated 1883 onto a
computer screen, which is projected onto a TV screen in his living room.
    "This is the first accurate map of Yosemite, from the government's
Wheeler
survey," he explains, before turning the map into a huge 3-D close-up and
then zooming through Yosemite Valley in a stunning virtual flyover -- a
Luke Skywalker with gray hair and spectacles, cruising canyons that have
not yet been hiked or filled with smog.
    "This is gaming technology, but no one is shooting anyone up," he
laughs.
The technology comes from Geographic Information Systems, developed by
Telemorphic, of Berkeley. It also allows the user to compare maps side by
side from different years, providing something of the march of history.
    "These days, we get around 7,000 hits a day," he says. "This tells you
that the Internet can create an interest in pretty much any subject
matter. We know that the site is used by a wide variety of people --
colleges, of course, but more than that. There are even homeschooled kids
in Iowa who can download three historic maps of their area. It's wonderful
to track who is using it; it's like hearing footsteps in a quiet library."
    And in his continuing efforts to get his treasures out in the world,
Rumsey also said yes to a book.
    "That grew out of the Web site. I was doing lectures for ESRI -- the
largest creator of geographic technology -- and they asked me if I wanted
to do a book. Edie (Punt, his collaborator) is a cartographer by trade,
and she had just joined ESRI, so it worked out beautifully."
    The result was "Cartographica Extraordinaire: The Historical Map
Transformed," a gorgeous behemoth of a book, with narrative threads that
trace a region's history through its maps. Containing everything from a
1736 rendering of California as an island to Civil War army location maps,
the book is a must-have for map-aholics.
    But again, if you're looking for something less expensive (i.e. free),
www.davidrumsey.com can accommodate you. "We always grant requests for
reproductions from the Web site and don't charge," he says. "We only ask
for credit."
    His site is also branching into his original love -- fine art, with
links
to visual collections that number in the tens of thousands. It's history
and art and geography at the click of a mouse. And Rumsey couldn't be
happier with how it's all turning out.
    "By the time my granddaughter is my age, this is how libraries will be
transformed," he smiles. "Everyone will have access to all these fantastic
things from our past. I think it's wonderful -- a great cause for
celebration."
    E-mail Jane Ganahl at [log in to unmask]
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Copyright 2004 SF Chronicle