George T. Abell Collection of Antique Maps

Overview

Map from the Abell collection.
Descrittione dell'America, o dell'India Occidentale. America. Page from Ptolemy's 2nd century Geographia. North America is stretched laterally, South America is rather square. Australia, known as Nova Guinea at this time, occupies the whole southern area of the map. Text in Italian. 1598.

This cartographic collection was the gift of the estate of the late Midland oilman George T. Abell. Mr Abell was interested in travel, geography, the geology of the petroleum industry and the history of the Southwest, and the maps reflect these as well as other subjects. The collection contains over a hundred maps which range in date from the sixteenth to the twentieth centuries. Notably, the collection also contains a 1573 copy of Abraham Ortelius's Theatrvm orbis terrarvm, considered by some as the first modern atlas of the world.