1. By Jim Peak
Special sections editor
Imagine if you will a library with unparalleled access to a vast collection of some of
the finest historic maps and globes ever made, a world-class resource right here in
Maine available not only to scholars but to the state’s teachers and schoolchildren.
This was the genesis of the idea of the late Eleanor and Sam Smith, whose vision and
collection legacy led to the creation of the Osher Map Library and Smith Center for
Cartographic Education, a prominent feature at the University of Southern Maine
campus in Portland.
It was the Smith’s decision to donate their map collection to the university that
inspired another Maine couple, Dr. Harold Osher and his wife Peggy, to donate the
many historic maps they had acquired over the years. These two couples’ personal
collections form the core of what is now a nearly 19,000-square-foot library on the
university’s Portland campus.
Carrying on the Smith’s legacy in Maine are two of their six children, Sallie Smith of
Freeport and Meredith S.S. Smith of South Portland.
“I think that this is one of the best things my parents did (and they did a lot),” Sallie
said. … “The map collection was a place where the two really enjoyed themselves.”
“They were an amazing couple who wanted to share their wealth of knowledge and
processions with the world,” Meredith said. “They wanted the maps and globes to be
looked at by many – to be teaching instruments – just as they wanted to share the
beauty of the coastal land at Wolfe’s Neck Farm and therefore built rustic campsites
all along the waterfront rather than selling off the lots for people to erect
McMansions.”
The couple purchased the Wolfe’s Neck property in Freeport shortly after World
War II, Meredith said, and “for some years after that began acquiring maps, first of
Maine and then branching out elsewhere. My mother’s mother was from Louisiana,
so Southern maps began to appear.”
Meredith and Sallie have witnessed how their parents’ exceptional collection has
evolved into a library open to all, with a permanent staff, curator, professor and
programs in place to properly preserve the maps and globes they treasured and to
educate others.
“It is a world-class resource that thousands of Maine schoolchildren have visited,”
said Yolanda Theunissen, curator of the Osher Map Library and director of the Smith
Center for Cartographic Education. It includes collection storage, reference
functions, a digital imaging lab, office space and the Sam Cohen Educational Center.

2. Funding for the library comes from individuals, private donations, activities and
grants, such as a recent $260,000 award from the National Endowment for the
Humanities for the conservation of the many globes donated by the Smiths,
Theunissen said. The first seven of these globes are close to being restored and will
be returned to the library in December, she said.
“You see, my parents kept the globes all over the house,” Meredith said, “and
sometimes the dogs would get rambunctious and knock them over. The maps were
kept in a separate room but always out to look at, with reference books beside the
map, note papers everywhere,” she said. “They were very special, but to be used.
Now the globes are under glass and out of the sun.”
Meredith also understands the educational value of their map and globe collection,
and through a generous donation of her own in 2009 funded the Renfrew
Fellowship for a permanent student endowment.
Support of the library will ensure the Smith’s legacy will prove a lasting one.
“I would hope for the future that the collection would continue to be a place that
attracts new additions and be a resource for scholars, give lectures and do this
wonderful outreach to schools,” Sallie said.