[posted to MapHist and lismaps]
I have just heard the sad news that Arthur David Baynes Cope died last
Friday (27 December), peacefully at his Suffolk home after a long illness.
Invariably known as BC, he had been a conservation officer at the British
Museum. He worked on a number of early maps and globes, always in close
consultation with his British Library colleague and friend, Helen Wallis.
He held strong and firm views about the Vinland Map, which he had examined
when it was at the British Museum. A number of you will have heard the
lively talks he gave on that and other subjects.
BC was delightfully idiosyncratic and will be much missed by his many
friends and former colleagues. He was a mine of information about
everything you could possibly want (or not want) to know, with a
delightfully subtle sense of humour. The British Library Map Library still
(I think) treasures his model for the storage of rolled maps that looked to
have been closely modelled on a Fench Revolutionary tumbril.
Tony Campbell
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