Historically, Ristow (1980) noted that only a few map collections existed in libraries in the 1850s, and a Division of Maps was not established at the Library of Congress until 1897 (p. 11). The first chief of the Library of Congress Map Division contributed a section on maps to Cutter's Rules for a Dictionary Catalog in 1904, in which he stated that "the cataloging of maps and atlases differs very little from the cataloging of ordinary books" (p. 15) Ristow called this an erroneous conception and for librarians to make maps ..."conform in physical makeup and in classification to the treatment accorded books" (p. 11), was the "principal deterrent to establishing a workable plan for handling maps in libraries" (p. 15).

For Ristow, map resources had little in common with books and thus, there was no generally accepted library classifying and cataloging for maps, nor uniformity in filing or equipment. In spite of Ristow's assessment, an exception did exist with U.S. Coast and Geodetic Survey map collection, which in 1895 was described as both useful and accessible (p. 13).