Abstract
The Map collection at Charles University was created at the same time as the Geographical Institute at Charles University's Faculty of Arts in 1891. In June 1920, the Institute and the collection were integrated under the new Faculty of Science.
In November of that year, following intensive preparations by the Academic Board headed by Prof. Václav Švambera, the collection gained the status of the "State Map Collection".
One of the reasons for establishing the organisation was to obtain large collection from the War Archives in Vienna. Prof.
Karel Kuchař, who was the most important Czech historical cartographer, led the Map collection in the years 1945-1973. After World War II, the collection acquired a number of confiscated materials from German university and castle's libraries.
The National Museum's and Czech National Library's map collections also became a part of the collection. The State Map Collection maintained its leading position up until 1952, when the communist government "reorganised" the sciences and arts and the collection was integrated into the Czechoslovak Academy of Sciences.
There the collection remained from 1953 until 1993. In that year, the Academy of Sciences' Geographical Institute was dissolved and the collection was returned to the original owner.
As the collection staff was small, no steps could be made to systematically document and provide access to the collection. There wasn't enough funding to restore, catalogue and digitise the collection.
As a result, it is currently very difficult to navigate the collection. Now a fundamental change can take place in connection with the TEMAP project.
Project of the Ministry of Culture: technology for accessing the map collections of the Czech Republic: methodology and software for protection and use of cartography works of national cartographic heritage were created in cooperation with the experts of the Moravian Library and Masaryk University in Brno.