The Indiae Orientalis Collection is rich in maps of India and other regions of Asia, but also features fascinating examples of cartographic achievements ranging around the world and across five centuries, some extraordinarily rare. It represents the lifelong quest of an American with a career in anthropology and journalism who lived in India researching its culture and society. Beginning in the early 1970s, when he was working on a doctorate at the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London, he discovered the availability of early maps of regions he had studied. Over the next four decades he expanded his collection, scouring antiquarian map shops and flea markets in numerous countries where he worked and travelled. He reveled in the ability to hold the actual maps used by travelers, merchants, and explorers hundreds of years ago, revealing their unfolding knowledge of the world.
