Ancient Christian maps of Israel, Jerusalem gifted to University of Haifa

The University of Haifa received the gift of a rare map collection made up of 30 maps and atlases containing biblical illustrations and Christian narratives from the 1500s and 1600s.

The gift was bequeathed by the Richard Umansky Living Trust based on the wishes of the late Dr. Richard Umansky, a pediatrician, outdoorsman, traveler and historian.

Umansky studied the maps for decades and eventually gave them to Stanford University to be cataloged and, when he died, given to the University of Haifa.

One of the maps in the collection is a Dutch interpretation of a 13th-century map, dating back to the 1600s. Copies of the collection are located in different places around the world.