This installation features a small fraction of the over 200 maps Professor Emeritus Barazangi (1941-2022) donated to Cornell University Library.

His unique map collection includes many rare and out of print maps of the Middle East, and bolstered Cornell University Library’s collections in several areas, including Syria, Iran, and North Africa. Highlights include: a set of USGS Geologic maps related to mining, Holy Land satellite database project maps, and “Africa orientale italiana”, a rare Italian map of Ethiopia.

In addition to the academic value of the individual maps, as a collection they provide a visual catalog of the geographic (and geologic) diversity of Professor Barazangi’s work throughout the world, most especially as it relates to his research group developing a comprehensive Geographic Information System (GIS) for the Middle East and North Africa (MENA).

Professor Barazangi joined Cornell University at the end of 1971, and served in 1978-1980 as professor and chairman of the Department of Geophysics at the Faculty of Earth Sciences, King Abdulaziz University, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. His interests are seismology, tectonics and lithospheric structure, especially in the Middle East and Morocco.

Barazangi’s donated maps can be found in the Olin Library Map Room. His papers are located in the University Archives in Kroch Library’s Rare & Manuscript Collections, and for more details please visit his website at http://atlas.geo.cornell.edu/