All maps ©Sterling Memorial Library Map Collection. Map photographed by Mark Morosse.

Powder horn, c. 1776

The bulk of the Map Collection’s holdings are unbound sheet maps. But the collection also has 30 globes, 3,000 atlases, and a number of other three-dimensional items—such as this early American powder horn, incised, scrimshaw-style, with a rough map of what is now upstate New York. Such powder-horn maps were common during the Revolutionary War. Often, the map was drawn by the same soldier who consulted it during marches and used it to carry his powder into battle.