In October 2004, heavy rain caused multimillion-dollar flood damage to the Manoa area, including Hamilton Library. The basement area, in particular, was used to store many rare maps that were salvaged in the landmark cleanup effort. Over the next 4 years about 10,000 maps were cleaned and restored; an additional 40,000 were sent for work at a mainland contractor. This collection features some of the restored maps treated by University of Hawai‘i at Manoa preservation staff.
The database collection features 573 images of 82 maps including
full texts that accompanied five of them. They are restricted as far as
reproduction use, but online, provide a fabulous resource for research. Included
are the insurance maps for Honolulu and Hawaii’s sugar mills and canneries, Honolulu
city maps and maps of the Hawaiian Islands as well as historic maps of Oceania and other parts of the world.
More information about the preservation aspects of the map treatments
may be found in the document
Protocol for Conservation Treatment: Recovery
of Hawaiian Maps and Unique Aerial Photographs from University of Hawai’i Manoa
Flood Damage at
http://digicoll.manoahawaii.edu/savedmaps/index.php
