The Bible Atlas belongs to The Arkley Collection of Early and Historical Children’s Literature, one of four major Children’s Literature Collections in the Rare Books and Special Collections library.
Inside front cover of the 1819 Bible Atlas
This is the description of the collection in the finding aid:
“The Arkely Collection of Early and Historical Children’s Literature holds Canadian, British and American children’s books from the late eighteenth century to 1939. It is strong in material by and about Lewis Carroll. Some unique items include Canadian first editions, early editions of children’s classics, and works of important illustrators. Works published after 1939 and journals are excluded from the collection in Rare Books and Special Collections (these are primarily housed in the UBC Education Library). The collection’s growth relies largely on gifts, but important Canadian items are purchased when they become available.”
The Bible Atlas is by no means an anomaly in the expansive collection, but it does serve as an interesting intersectional piece: the chapbook-style map collection has a slightly unusual assembly, and as a Bible Atlas for Children and Youth it straddles the domains of Children’s Literature and Religious Reference Texts.
There are two publications by Sheila Egoff pertaining to the Arkley Collection that can be accessed through the University Library.
The librarian of this collection is Katherine Kalsbeek, a Reference, Literature and Conservation and Map Librarian at UBC. She can be reached at katherine.kalsbeek@ubc.ca for general inquiries about the collection.