Mapping the Future of DPLA and Library of Congress Collaboration

As we announced earlier this week, we are excited and honored to welcome the Library of Congress as the newest member of the DPLA network. As a Content Hub, the Library of Congress will make a significant portion of its rich digital collections discoverable in DPLA, beginning with a series of 5,000 historical maps and eventually including a broad array of materials including images, music, and more.

DPLA Executive Director Dan Cohen, Board President Amy Ryan, board member Mary Minow, and former board member Laura DeBonis traveled to Washington, D.C. to meet with Librarian of Congress Dr. Carla Hayden as she signed the agreement Tuesday. While there, Cohen, Ryan, and Minow were treated to a behind-the-scenes look at a selection of the maps that will soon be available to all in DPLA alongside treasured historical resources from libraries, museums and historical societies across the country.

Hayden showed Cohen A plan of my farm on Little Huntg. Creek & Potomk. R., dating to 1766, which is part of the Library’s Revolutionary War map collection. That “farm” was Mount Vernon and the surveyor who created this map was George Washington.

A Library of Congress staff member introduces a 1776 reconnaissance map showing entrenchments at Princeton, NJ map to Ryan, Hayden, and Minow during their visit.

The DPLA team and Dr. Hayden took a look at a bird’s eye view of the Gettysburg Battlefield, part of the Civil War maps collection, soon to be accessible in DPLA.

This week’s partnership agreement represents a first step in what we plan to be a long term and multifaceted collaboration with the nation’s library. DPLA will offer the public – from students, to family researchers, to scholars – even more avenues through which to discover, explore, and use not only maps, but a diverse array of the Library of Congress’s unique collections.

Photos courtesy of Library of Congress.