BANGOR, Maine - A team of University of Maine researchers will receive a top prize from the American Association of Geographers. The geographic group is giving its 2016 Globe Book Award for Public Understanding of Geography to the Historical Atlas of Maine.
"It's an enormous deal. It's a great honor to get this award," says Stephen Hornsby, director of UMaine's Canadian-American Center.
Hornsby says the effort, which started in 1997, involved funding from the Legislature and the hard work of many to compile a richly illustrated atlas of Maine geographic history, from the end of the last ice age to the year 2000.
The book was finally published in 2014, with a second printing last year.
The idea, Hornsby says, was to make a volume of maps, pictures, charts, and information that would not only be of value to scholars - but a pleasure for the general public.
"So everything had to be very clearly written. There was going to be no jargon at all," he says. "And we felt that the book would be a failure if the public didn't understand what we were trying to do."
Winning the Globe Book Award further demonstrates that the team was successful in that mission. And he says it's being used in classrooms.
Members of the team will travel to San Francisco next month to accept the honor at a ceremony.
The atlas can be ordered through the University of Maine Press, and can be found at some local booksellers.
