In 1986, J. Brian Harley of UWM's Department of Geography proposed the establishment of a "Center for American Cartography." The center would complement the American Geographical Society Library (AGSL), a unit of the Golda Meir Library, by providing a focus for geographical and historical research and allowing the solicitation of federal and private funds for a number of different cartographical activities. It would be an interdisciplinary center for advanced research on the role of maps and mapping throughout history. Harley believed that the Center should stress four aspects of American cartography:
- Historical aspects of American cartography and its European antecedents down to the present.
- The multi-disciplinary nature of research and teaching in the field.
- The social history of map use and relevance of maps in contemporary society.
- Research in historical cartography, including the compilation of historical atlases.
Sometime between 1986 and 1987, the name of the proposed institution was changed to the Office for Map History, to reflect the AGSL's primary purpose as a repository of historical maps. It was officially established in 1987 with support from the Golda Meir Library and the College of Letters and Science. As stated in a 1990 planning document, the Office's "specific mission [was] to exploit the resources of the American Geographical Society Collection with which it is affiliated. In particular it [was] charged with raising grants from external sources to support interdisciplinary research, educational programs, and scholarly publications." J. Brian Harley was appointed as the office's director.
During its short life, the office's largest project was the mounting of Maps and the Columbian Encounter, an exhibition of 50 original maps from the AGSL, the Newberry Library in Chicago, the James Ford Bell Library at the University of Minnesota, and the William L. Clements Library at the University of Michigan-Ann Arbor. The exhibition, mounted to coincide with the 500-year anniversary of the discovery of America by Europeans, was designed to reinterpret this encounter between two worlds with new understandings of the ways in which maps of the time manifested people's perceptions, beliefs, and social institutions.
The exhibition was a great success, and the office created a facsimile exhibition that traveled to different cities and institutions. J. Brian Harley died unexpectedly in late 1991, and the functions of the office were temporarily assigned to Dr. Roman Drazniowsky, curator of the AGSL. The Office for Map History was dissolved in 1993.
