David Judkins Weaver papers
Scope and Contents
The David Judkins Weaver papers consist primarily of maps dated 1799-2019, bulk 1970-2019, that were created or collected by David Judkins Weaver (1951-), a cartographer and geographer in Boston, Massachusetts, who worked at various companies and Massachusetts agencies from the early use of computer cartography in the 1970s through its development and increasing adoption to prevalent method of cartography in the 2010s.
The collection contains manuscript and printed maps, notebooks, books, pamphlets, documents, photographic prints, 35mm slides, and tools. It includes his professional portfolio, notes, and independently published maps; maps from organizations at which he was employed, mainly MassGIS and Applied Geographics, Inc.; his collection of traditionally published maps and computer-assisted maps; cartography reference materials; and cartography tools. A large portion of maps are of Massachusetts and New England or show coastal and environmental information.
Dates
- Majority of material found within 1970 - 2019
- 1799 - 2023
Creator
- Weaver, David, 1951- (Person)
Language of Materials
Materials primarily in English with some materials in Swedish.
Conditions Governing Access
This collection is open for research. Please contact the Leventhal Map and Education Center to make a research appointment.
Conditions Governing Use
Items in this collection may be subject to copyright restrictions. In most cases, the Boston Public Library does not hold the copyright to the items in our collections. It is the sole responsibility of the user to make their own determination about what types of usage might be permissible under U.S. and international copyright law.
David Weaver (1951-)
David Judkins Weaver (1951-) is an American cartographer and geographer who worked in manual cartography, digital mapping and cartography, and geographic information systems (GIS) from 1974-2016. He had a particular interest in coastal areas, environment, base mapping, and map design. He was born in Worcester, Massachusetts in 1951. In 1974, he received a BA in Geography from Clark University in Worcester, MA.
From 1974-1977, he was cartographer of the Massachusetts Executive Office of Environmental Affairs (EOEA) new Office of Coastal Zone Management. He compiled the natural and cultural resources of the coast and produced maps of the George's Bank in response to a major offshore oil spill. In 1976, he produced the Boston bikemap as a freelance project for the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the Boston Area Bicycle Coalition.
In 1978, he designed and compiled computer-produced town atlases for Cities Corp, a subsidiary of Esselte Map Service. From 1978-1979, he was a project manager at University of California, Santa Barbara for an exhibit displaying marine science research projects at an international marine science conference.
From 1979-1983, Weaver self-published maps of the New England coast, his version of Matthew Fontaine Maury’s Whale chart, and several editions of Boston bikemap. From 1983-1986, he worked at the Metropolitan Area Planning Council (MAPC) providing cartographic services for state and Boston-area municipalities and produced the Massachusetts bicycle map.
In 1986, Weaver was hired as cartographer for the new MassGIS project, a joint initiative of the EOEA and the United States Geological Survey to build a geographic information system for Massachusetts. Weaver helped develop the first statewide GIS datasets in the MassGIS database, including roads, hydrography, municipal boundaries, aquifers, public water supply wells, hazardous sites and facilities, and land use. In 1989 the project was transferred to EOEA and the scope was broadened to provide staff training and GIS application services support to all EOEA agencies. Projects were also initiated with other agencies including Massachusetts Department of Transportation, Massachusetts Water Resources Authority, and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
In 1991, Weaver left MassGIS and cofounded Applied Geographics, Inc. (AppGeo), a GIS consulting firm in Boston, MA. He managed many projects for municipal, state and federal clients. Weaver was vice president until his retirement in 2016. He remained on the board of directors until 2022. In 2017 Weaver received the Peter S. Thatcher Award from the Northeast Arc Users Group for his career of service to the GIS community. In 2018 he inventoried and organized the chart and map collection of the Boston Marine Society.
Extent
5 Cubic Feet (41 folders, 4 boxes)
Arrangement
The papers are arranged in six series:
- Professional portfolio
- MassGIS
- Applied Geographics, Inc.
- Computer cartography
- Historical collection
- General map and cartography books
Immediate Source of Acquisition
Gift of David Judkins Weaver, 2022.
Separated Materials
General books and atlases were added to the general research collection.
Processing Information
The arrangement scheme for the collection was imposed by LMEC staff during processing in the absence of an original order. Duplicates and items unrelated to cartography were returned to the donor.
Processing Information
This electronic finding aid is transcribed from legacy data. In many cases, transcriptions were not verified against collection materials at the time of transcription. As a result, this finding aid could be incomplete and might only reflect a partial understanding of the material.
Statement on harmful description
Archival description reflects the biases of time periods and cultures in which it was created and may include direct quotations or descriptions that use inappropriate or harmful language. Creator provided descriptions may be maintained in order to preserve the context in which the collection was created and/or used. Legacy description and potentially offensive content may be made available online until a collection can be reprocessed because the access that they provide to primary source materials is uniquely valuable to the research community at large. Our efforts to repair outdated descriptions and to describe our collections more equitably are iterative and ongoing.
- Applied Geographics, Inc.
- Boston (Mass.) -- Maps Subject Source: Library of Congress Subject Headings
- Cartographers -- United States -- 20th century Subject Source: Local sources
- Cartography -- Computer programs Subject Source: Library of Congress Subject Headings
- Color in visual communication Subject Source: Library of Congress Subject Headings
- Computer cartography Subject Source: Local sources
- Computer-assisted maps Subject Source: Art & Architecture Thesaurus
- Digital mapping Subject Source: Library of Congress Subject Headings
- Digital prints Subject Source: Art & Architecture Thesaurus
- Drafting instruments Subject Source: Art & Architecture Thesaurus
- Drawing instruments Subject Source: Art & Architecture Thesaurus
- Geographic information systems Subject Source: Library of Congress Subject Headings
- Land use -- Maps Subject Source: Local sources
- Manuscript maps Subject Source: Art & Architecture Thesaurus
- Map projection Subject Source: Library of Congress Subject Headings
- Maps (documents) Subject Source: Art & Architecture Thesaurus
- MassGIS (Office : Mass.)
- Massachusetts -- Maps Subject Source: Library of Congress Subject Headings
- Massachusetts Coastal Zone Management Office
- Massachusetts. Metropolitan Area Planning Council
- Nautical charts Subject Source: Library of Congress Genre/Form Terms
- Notebooks Subject Source: Art & Architecture Thesaurus
- Photographic prints Subject Source: Art & Architecture Thesaurus
- Physical geography Subject Source: Library of Congress Subject Headings
- Physical maps Subject Source: Library of Congress Genre/Form Terms
- Pictorial maps Subject Source: Art & Architecture Thesaurus
- Raisz, Erwin, 1893-1968
- Slides (photographs) Subject Source: Art & Architecture Thesaurus
- United States -- History -- Civil War, 1861-1865 -- Maps Subject Source: Library of Congress Subject Headings
- Water-supply -- Maps Subject Source: Local sources
- Weaver, David, 1951-
- Title
- David Judkins Weaver papers
- Author
- Lauren Chen
- Date
- 2023 March
- Description rules
- Describing Archives: A Content Standard
- Language of description
- English
- Script of description
- Latin
About this library
Part of the Boston Public Library Archives & Special Collections Repository
