CAGIS Receives Generous Global Map Collection from Jonathan McKinnon

The Center for Applied GIScience (CAGIS) at UNC Charlotte is grateful to Jonathan N. McKinnon, a recently retired airline captain and longtime map collector, for his generous donation of hundreds of maps from around the world and a large map cabinet for educational use at UNC Charlotte.

Jonathan first reached out to CAGIS while looking for a new home where his collection could continue to serve an educational purpose. Built over many years, the collection includes maps from across the world as well as a substantial set of worldwide aviation maps containing meteorological information. The donation also includes a large Hamilton map cabinet to preserve and organize the collection.

On September 14, Drs. Wenwu Tang, Yao Li, and Tianyang Chen traveled to pick up the maps and cabinet and transport them to UNC Charlotte. Moving such a large collection was truly a team effort. Special thanks go to Azad Sadeghi, Yunsik Kim, and Jayanta Biswas, who helped move the cabinet and maps upstairs and safely into CAGIS.

A few days later, on September 17, Jonathan and his family, Thepprasit Kaewsutsri (TK), visited UNC Charlotte and spent time with faculty, researchers, and students at CAGIS and the Department of Earth, Environmental and Geographical Sciences. During the visit, they met with Department Chair Dr. Sara Gagné and members of the CAGIS community, toured the Center and Department, and shared stories and experiences connected to the map collection.

These maps will provide valuable physical resources for teaching and learning in cartography, GIScience, and related geospatial fields, allowing students to explore how places around the world have been represented and navigated through maps across different contexts and periods.

CAGIS sincerely thanks Jonathan McKinnon for entrusting this remarkable collection to UNC Charlotte. His generosity gives these maps a new life as educational resources for future students, researchers, and map enthusiasts in our community.