Borchert Map Library

Recently Ryan Mattke, head of the Borchert Map Library helped rescue some of the maps and atlases that once were housed in the Minneapolis City Hall clock tower. "We know that the records, the atlases and maps, will be in a great repository, where they are looked after, where they have good preservation techniques," said Jessica Velie, City Records Manager for Minneapolis.

Chris Stedman, who loved maps as a youngster, came back to them as he was investigating life online. In writing his new book "IRL: Finding Realness, Meaning, and Belonging in our Digital Lives” he was helped by the Libraries' Ryan Mattke and Kirsten Delegard.

The National States Geographic Information Council (NSGIC) has recognized the Mapping Prejudice Project with a Catalyst award. The project, which mobilizes volunteers to map racial covenants that barred non-whites from owning or even occupying property, last fall also received a Minnesota Governor’s Commendation.

Ryan Mattke, Head of the Borchert Map Library, accepted the Governor's Award on October 4 for the Minnesota Historical Aerial Photographs Online website, which includes thousands of digital copies of historical aerial photographs, mostly from between the 1920s and the 1990s, covering all 87 counties in Minnesota.

Join us for “Racism, Rent and Real Estate: Fair Housing Reframed,” an 8-event series that reckons with our dark history of covenants, redlining and structural racism; and convene cross-sector, community-centered conversations to chart a course for housing equity in Minneapolis moving forward. The first event on June 21 will feature the work of the Mapping Prejudice Project team, led by Kirsten Delegard and Kevin Ehrman-Solberg of the University of Minnesota.