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Bidney’s project will focus on documenting the existence and extent of collections of nautical charts from about 1820-1935, which have the potential to play an important role in providing access to historical water data in current times when it is clear that access to water is becoming a critical issue facing the world. Historical knowledge of water locations, breadth, and depths will aid in research and can be used for protecting valuable water resources. This research will result in extensive documentation of these collections, with the intent to later create a collaborative project to create a point of access and discovery for these collections.

“The committee was particularly impressed by the potential of Bidney’s project to have the important practical benefit of contributing to our understanding of present-day freshwater resources,” said award chair Jeffrey Staiger of the University of Oregon. “Bidney plans to determine the extent of the holdings in nautical charts at select major European libraries in England, France, and Portugalm and document their coverage, bibliographic details, and condition. These oft-neglected cartographical objects contain historical information about such aspects of waterways as depth, shorelines, and navigation routes.”