Historical Map Collections

Dr. Coolie Verner (1917-1979) was a professor of adult education at UBC, but his vocation was the history of cartography and cartobibliography. He developed a large collection of maps to support his study of the cartographic development of northern North America. The maps in this collection are mainly of North America, in particular the western and northern parts, and of eastern Russia and China, and cover the period from the 16th - 20th century. There are groups of maps featuring the explorations of Cook, Vancouver, La Perouse, Müller, Cluny, De Fonte, Dixon and Meares, Mackenzie and Hearne. His map collection consists of some 400 maps, including originals and some photocopies. 

Dr. Verner also created an endowment fund for the Library's Historical Map Collection, which will fund additions to this collection. 

For more information on the holdings of the Coolie Verner maps collection, consult the "Cartography" series and "Maps" subseries of the Coolie Verner fonds [PDF 704KB].

• The Cartography series contains correspondence and manuscripts pertaining to Verner's published and unpublished works in the area of historical maps description. The series includes a collection of over 400 published maps and a considerable amount of research material, mainly in the form of index cards containing bibliographic descriptions.

UBC Library Catalogue

This collection is collated under the term "Coolie Verner Map Collection" in the UBC Library Catalogue.

Catalogue Searching

Another way to locate materials in this collection is by using the UBC Library Catalogue to search. You can create your search by following these steps:

• Type the location or area you would like the map to cover in the search bar. Then change the 'All Fields' drop down menu to 'Subject'
• Limit the 'Location' drop down menu to 'Rare Books & Special Collections'
• Limit the 'Type' drop down menu to 'Map'
• Click Search!

Alternatively, use the search tool below: