Willis G. Meyer Map Collection

The Willis G. Meyer map collection is generously endowed by a gift from Willis George Meyer (1906-1995) and his family.

Willis G. Meyer's long relationship with the University of Cincinnati began in the 1930s, receiving his MS degree in 1933 and returning to complete his Ph.D. in geology in 1941. He had a long and successful career in the petroleum industry, first with a large oil company and later as a consultant working in the United States, Mexico, Brazil, and New Zealand. During this time he also obtained a professional engineer's license.

The Willis G. Meyer map collection is over 200,000 maps. It is used by UC students, faculty, and the general public researching fields as diverse as geology, geography, oceanography, planning, environmental science, and anthropology. In addition to funding the purchase of maps, the endowment supports map equipment, software, and student assistants employed to assist with the collections' organization and maintenance. Selected monographs about maps and map making are also purchased with the fund.

The University, the Geology Department, the UC Libraries and the many users of the map collection deeply appreciate this thoughtful and most useful gift, which strongly supports the teaching, learning, and research mission of the University of Cincinnati.

Guidebook Collection

Geology guidebooks are a great source of local information. Normally they are detailed field trip guides that include road logs and descriptions of geological features.

Guidebooks tend to be available on a limited basis, often times the number of copies is driven solely by number of attendees. Many of our own guidebooks are donations from geology faculty throughout the years and they provide a fascinating record of their academic interests and passions!

Our collection is over 1400 titles strong and is shelved together on the stack level, on the south side of the staircase.

Rare Book Collection

The Rare Book room in the Geology-Mathematics-Physics Library pulls together some of our most treasured printed gems in the general sciences, math, physics, and geology. A few of our more interesting titles include first editions by Louis Agassiz, Max Planck, and Nevin Fenneman, a 2010 pop-up book celebrating the Large Hadron Collider, and The Journal of the Cincinnati Society of Natural History. The room is a secured facility and is available by appointment only Monday-Friday, 8am-5pm. Call 513-556-1324 for assistance