CSAA Donates 7,000 Maps to Stanford University

Stanford University’s Branner Earth Sciences Library has recently acquired 7,000 old road maps through a generous donation by the California State Automobile Association (CSAA). The recent donation was triggered by the CSAA’s move to new headquarters with less space. Along with the road maps, the CSAA donation includes thousands of linen maps, topographic maps and county tract maps that expose the microscopic details of Northern California’s landscape, even down to housing tracts. Included with the acquisition of this collection are several boxes of etched sheets of scribecoat, a material similar to Mylar that was used by CSAA mapmakers in the 1970’s as part of the photomechanical cartographic process.

Here is a link to an article from Stanford University discussing the details of the collection. http://news.stanford.edu/news/2009/march18/aaa-maps-donation-031809.html