Harold Osher | |
|---|---|
 Osher in 2011 | |
| Born | January 11, 1924 Portland, Maine |
| Died | December 23, 2023 (aged 99) |
| Occupation(s) | cardiologist, philanthropist |
| Known for | Osher Map Library |
Harold L. Osher (January 11, 1924 - December 23, 2023) was an American cardiologist, philanthropist, and map collector.
Osher was born in Portland, Maine to Leah Lazarovich Osher and Samuel Osher (née Osherowitz) one of five children. [1] He grew up in Biddeford working at his parents' hardware store. He graduated from Biddeford High School. He attended Bowdoin College and received medical training at Boston University School of Medicine. He married Peggy Liberman and the couple moved back to Maine where he opened a private practice. [2] They had four children.
Osher was a cardiologist. [1] He served as director of Maine Medical Center's division of cardiology and held faculty appointments at several New England medical schools. [3] [4] He was the president of the Maine chapter of the American Heart Association. [3]
As he approached retirement, Osher began collecting maps in 1974, an interest which he had had since childhood. [5] He and his wife had traveled to London and she had convinced him to purchase a historic map which became the beginnings of their collection. [6]
The collection he accumulated with his wife, 10,000 maps cataloged by Osher, became "one of the finest map collections in the world." [7] Chromolithography was a particular interest area in which Osher collected. Osher and his wife Peggy donated their collection to the University of Southern Maine in 1989 after another donation by Eleanor Houston Smith who had her own extensive collection. They stipulated that the maps "not only be used for teaching at the university and in educational outreach programs for public schools but be made accessible to the general public." [1]
This donation, combined with USM's existing collections and additional resources provided by the Oshers, became the Osher Map Library and Smith Center for Cartographic Education in 1994. [4] In 2012 Osher was awarded the International Map Collectors’ Society Helen Wallis Award. [8] In 2018, Osher formally turned over the remainder of his and his wife's entire collection to the Osher Map Library, a collection "loosely valued at $100 million." As of 2024, the collection had half a million items with over 75,000 available in digitized format.
Biddeford is a city in York County, Maine, United States. It is the principal commercial center of York County. Its population was 22,552 at the 2020 census. The twin cities of Saco and Biddeford include the resort communities of Biddeford Pool and Fortunes Rocks. The town is the site of the University of New England and the annual La Kermesse Franco-Americaine Festival. First visited by Europeans in 1616, it is the site of one of the earliest European settlements in the United States. It is home to Saint Joseph's Church, the tallest building in Maine.
Saco is a city in York County, Maine, United States. The population was 20,381 at the 2020 census. It is home to Ferry Beach State Park, Funtown Splashtown USA, Thornton Academy, as well as General Dynamics Armament Systems, a subsidiary of the defense contractor General Dynamics. Saco sees much tourism during summer months due to its amusement parks, Camp Ellis Beach and Pier, Ferry Beach State Park, and proximity to Old Orchard Beach.
Marguerite "Peggy" Guggenheim was an American art collector, bohemian, and socialite. Born to the wealthy New York City Guggenheim family, she was the daughter of Benjamin Guggenheim, who went down with the Titanic in 1912, and the niece of Solomon R. Guggenheim, who established the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation. Guggenheim collected art in Europe and America between 1938 and 1946. She exhibited this collection as she built it. In 1949, she settled in Venice, where she lived and exhibited her collection for the rest of her life. The Peggy Guggenheim Collection is a modern art museum on the Grand Canal in Venice, Italy, and is one of the most visited attractions in Venice.
The University of New England (UNE) is a private research university in Maine with campuses in Portland and Biddeford, as well as a study abroad campus in Tangier, Morocco. During the 2020 academic year, 7,208 students were enrolled in UNE's campus-based and online programs. It traces it historical origins to 1831 when Westbrook Seminary opened on what is now the UNE Portland Campus.
The University of Southern Maine (USM) is a public university with campuses in Portland, Gorham and Lewiston in the U.S. state of Maine. It is the southernmost of the University of Maine System. It was founded as two separate state universities, Gorham Normal School and Portland University. The two universities, later known as Gorham State College and the University of Maine at Portland, were combined in 1970 to help streamline the public university system in Maine and eventually expanded by adding the Lewiston campus in 1988.
The Portland Press Herald is a daily newspaper based in South Portland, Maine, with a statewide readership. The Press Herald mainly serves southern Maine and is focused on the greater metropolitan area of Portland.
The Portland Museum of Art, or PMA, is the largest and oldest public art institution in the U.S. state of Maine. Founded as the Portland Society of Art in 1882. It is located in the downtown area known as The Arts District in Portland, Maine.
John Calvin Stevens was an American architect who worked in the Shingle Style, in which he was a major innovator, and the Colonial Revival style. He designed more than 1,000 buildings in the state of Maine.
Charles B. Benenson was an American real estate developer and investor.
Barbro Sachs-Osher is a former Swedish honorary consul general in Los Angeles and San Francisco and a well-known philanthropist, chair of the Bernard Osher Foundation and of the Barbro Osher Pro Suecia Foundation.
Bernard Osher is an American businessman, best known for his work as a philanthropist.
The Norman B. Leventhal Map & Education Center at the Boston Public Library is a special collections center in Boston, Massachusetts with research, educational, and exhibition programs relating to historical geography. It is the steward of the Boston Public Library’s map collection, consisting of approximately a quarter million geographic objects, including maps, atlases, globes, ephemera, and geographic data. It is located in the McKim Building of the Central Library in Copley Square.
Marion Osher Sandler was the co-CEO of Golden West Financial Corporation and World Savings Bank. In 2004, after 43 years running Golden West Financial Corporation, she was described by the Columbia School of Journalism as "the first and longest-serving woman chief executive officer in the United States."
William Leslie MacVane Jr. was an American surgeon and politician. MacVane assisted in the first open heart surgery performed in Maine in 1959 and served as the mayor of Portland, Maine, for one term in 1971.
A map collection or map library is a storage facility for maps, usually in a library, archive, or museum, or at a map publisher or public-benefit corporation, and the maps and other cartographic items stored within that facility.
Walter Eugene Perkins (1859–1925) was an American stage and film actor, known for his performances in films such as My Friend from India (1914), Who Goes There? (1914) and Paying His Debt (1918).
Ryan Michael Fecteau is an American politician serving as the Speaker of the Maine House of Representatives. A Democrat, Fecteau serves Maine House District 11, consisting of a portion of Biddeford. At the time of his election as Speaker of the House in December 2020, Fecteau was both the youngest active state Speaker in the United States and the first openly gay person to serve as Speaker of the Maine House.
Matthew H. Edney is a British geographer who is both the Osher Professor in the History of Cartography, at the University of Southern Maine; and the Project Director of the History of Cartography Project at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Edney maintains a blog, Mapping as Process, where he discusses the study of mapping processes: production, circulation, and consumption.
Irving Hotchkiss Pardee was an American neurologist.