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The map that travelled around the world

It’s not often that a book about geology makes the bestseller lists, but such was the case for The Map That Changed the World: William Smith and the Birth of Modern Geology by Simon Winchester, published in 2001.

William Smith, regarded as the ‘Father of Geology’, created the first map in 1815. This historic document measures 180cm by almost 260cm, and now hangs in the headquarters of the Geological Society of London at Burlington House, Piccadilly.

Fewer than 400 copies of the map were made, including an un-numbered and unsigned fifth series that has been attributed to 1817. It has also been noted that this version is quite different from the original map, containing extra details that had become known since the first series was created.

In 1965, the head of Department of Geology at ANU, Professor David A Brown, was in London. He was fortunate enough to be offered a ‘clean’ copy of the ‘Series V Map (1817)’ by booksellers Wheldon & Wesley Ltd, which he promptly purchased for the Department. An accompanying note concluded that “no alterations were made [to the map] after Jan. 1, 1819, and that, in all probability, few if any copies were sold after the beginning of 1820”.

This rich geological map found a new home in the Department of Geology Building at ANU until Professor Brown’s retirement in 1981, when it was moved to the new Department of Earth and Marine Sciences. Only a few copies in this series are known to exist, making this window into the past a rare and welcome sight.

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ANU Reporter Spring 2006