Finding Aid for the Norman Thrower Papers, 1979-1989 LSC.2344
Finding aid prepared by Kuhelika Ghosh, 2017.
UCLA Library Special Collections
Online finding aid last updated 2017 12 October.
Room A1713, Charles E. Young Research Library
Box 951575
Los Angeles, CA 90095-1575
Business Number: 310-825-4988
Fax Number: 310-206-1864
spec-coll@library.ucla.edu
Contributing Institution:
UCLA Library Special Collections
Title: Norman Thrower papers
Creator:
Thrower, Norman J. W. (Norman Joseph William)
Identifier/Call Number: LSC.2344
Physical Description:
0.4 Linear Feet
(1 box)
Date (inclusive): 1979-1989
Abstract: Norman Thrower was a professor in UCLA's geography department from 1957 to 1990, where he specialized in cartography, remote
sensing, and Europe. He was the director of the (Columbus) Quincentenary Programs at the UCLA Center for Medieval and Renaissance
Studies, and the director of the Clark Library at UCLA. The collection consists of lecture notes and pamphlets on the 1986
Halley's Comet and the subsequent Newton-Halley volume,
Standing on the Shoulders of Giants: A Longer View of Newton and Halley (1990), which Thrower produced with colleagues, along with relevant correspondence.
Physical Location: Stored off-site. All requests to access special collections material must be made in advance using the request button located
on this page.
Language of Material: Materials are primarily in English, some materials in French.
Conditions Governing Access
Open for research. All requests to access special collections materials must be made in advance using the request button located
on this page.
Conditions Governing Reproduction and Use
Property rights to the objects belong to UCLA Library Special Collections. All other rights, including copyright, are retained
by the creators and their heirs. It is the responsibility of the researcher to determine who holds the copyright and pursue
the copyright owner or his or her heir for permission to publish where The UC Regents do not hold the copyright.
Preferred Citation
[Identification of item], Norman Thrower Papers (Collection 2344). UCLA Library Special Collections, Charles E. Young Research
Library, University of California, Los Angeles.
Provenance/Source of Acquisition
Gift of Norman Thrower, 2001.
Processing Information
Processed by Kuhelika Ghosh under the supervision of Courtney Dean in the Center for Primary Research and Training (CFPRT),
2017.
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General note
Biography/History
Normal Thrower was born in England in 1919. He served in India during World War II and afterwards he joined the Directorate
of Colonial (later Overseas) Surveys. Desiring an academic background, he completed his Bachelor of Arts degree in geography
at the University of Virginia in 1953. He then earned his Ph.D. degree in geography in 1958 at the University of Wisconsin.
His dissertation concerned cadastral survey systems, used to establish legal property boundaries, and it was later published
by the Association of American Geographers as
Original Survey and Land Subdivision: A Comparative Study of the Form and Effect of Contrasting Cadastral Surveys (1966).
Thrower joined the UCLA Department of Geography in 1957, where he specialized in cartography, remote sensing, and Europe.
His research focused on the contemporary and historical aspects of cartography, including studies of orthophotomapping and
Iandmark maps. He is the author and editor of several books:
Maps and Man (1972), enlarged as
Maps and Civilization: Cartography in Culture and Society (1996), published by the University of Chicago Press;
The Complete Plattmaker: Essays on Chart, Map, and Globe Making in England in the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries (1978);
The Three Voyages of Edmond Halley in the 'Paramore', 1698-1701 (1981), published by the Hakluyt Society;
Sir Francis Drake and the Famous Voyages, 1577-1580 (1984);
A Leaf From the 1619 French Edition of the Mercator-Hondius World Atlas (1985);
Standing on the Shoulders of Giants: A Longer View of Newton and Halley (1990); and
A Buccaneer's Atlas: Basil Ringrose's South Seas Waggoner (with Derek Howse) (1992).
From 1989 to 1992, Thrower was the director of the (Columbus) Quincentenary Programs at the UCLA Center for Medieval and Renaissance
Studies. From 1981 to 1987, he served as the director of the Clark Library at UCLA and the UCLA Center for Seventeenth and
Eighteenth Century Studies was founded during his tenure. He was also the president of The Society for the History of Discoveries
from 1973 to 1975, and in 1979, he was the founding president of the California Map Society. He retired from UCLA in 1990;
however, he still teaches geography courses at UCLA.
Scope and Content
The records span from 1979 to 1989 and mostly consist of lecture notes and pamphlets on Halley's Comet from 1986 and the subsequent
Newton-Halley volume,
Standing on the Shoulders of Giants: A Longer View of Newton and Halley (1990), which Thrower produced with colleagues, along with relevant correspondence.
Organization and Arrangement
Following Halley's Comet materials, collection is arranged by collaborator. Folders retain original titles.
Related Material
Subjects and Indexing Terms
Geographers -- United States -- Archives.
Geography teachers -- California -- Los Angeles -- Archives.
Thrower, Norman J. W. (Norman Joseph William) -- Archives
University of California, Los Angeles. Department of Geography--Faculty -- Archives
box 1, folder 1
Halley's Comet: correspondence and promotional materials
1986
box 1, folder 2
Halley's Comet: lecture notes
1986
box 1, folder 3
I. Bernard Cohen correspondence
1984-1989
box 1, folder 4
Cohen - Halley's Two Essays on Newton's Principia
undated
box 1, folder 5
Alan Hugh Cook correspondence
1982-1988
box 1, folder 6
Cook - Edmond Halley, Surveyor and Military Engineer
undated
box 1, folder 7
Suzanne Débarbat correspondence
1984-1985
Language of Material: Contains materials in French.
box 1, folder 8
Débarbat - Newton, Halley and the Paris Observatory
undated
Language of Material: Contains materials in French.
box 1, folder 9
Derek Howse correspondence
1983-1988
box 1, folder 10
Howse - Newton, Halley and the Royal Observatory
1985
box 1, folder 11
David W. Waters correspondence
1979-1988
box 1, folder 12
Waters - Halley, FRS, Royal Navy and the Practice of Navigation
1985
box 1, folder 13
Richard Westfall and Gerald Funk correspondence
1983-1988
box 1, folder 14
Westfall and Funk - Newton and Halley
undated
