S. Max Edelson

The Cartography of American Colonization Database is a web portal that organizes records of thousands of historic maps relating to the European colonization of the Americas in the period 1500-1800. Based at the University of Virginia's Institute for Advanced Technology in the Humanities, this database gathers and refines metadata relating to digital map images scattered across library sites around the world. The CACD provides a single place where scholars can explore, analyze, and interpret maps in their historical and cartographic contexts. Through key collaborations, it features visualizations that allow the scholar to make the most of maps' research potential as digital objects through image layering, dynamic timelines, and automatic text association.