Boston PL Gets $10 Million from Philanthropist for Map Center He Founded

Norman Oder -- Library Journal, 9/10/2007

The Boston Public Library (BPL) has received a $10 million gift from real estate developer Norman B. Leventhal to create a permanent endowment for the Norman B. Leventhal Map Center that he founded in 2004 in cooperation with the library and the city of Boston. Endowment income, the library said, will "support the Map Center's mission of using maps to better understand human history, civilization and the world in which we live."

The Map Center includes more than 200,000 maps and 5000 atlases, one of the country’s most significant collections. "I wanted this extensive collection of rare and antique maps to be available to everyone," Leventhal said. "They are of great educational and artistic value for schoolchildren, for scholars, and for people who just love maps. Too often, maps are archived and kept away from public view. The Library is the perfect location." BPL President Bernard Margolis said that this endowment "creates an unprecedented opportunity for the Map Center." The current exhibit, Journeys of the Imagination, concerns how maps have been created over some 500 years.

Four years ago, Leventhal initially offered a $350,000 challenge grant to BPL for its collection, then donated his own $4 million collection, plus $3 million to maintain the library’s maps in a new map room, according to the Boston Globe.