Biographical Note
Ian Mumford (1923-2015) contributed to the historical study of the British Ordnance Survey by writing several chapters for the survey’s official history. He was the first honorary secretary of the British Cartographic Society and a member of the Charles Society for the study of Ordnance Survey maps. His work with maps began after serving in the British Army in Burma and India. He took a position in the map room at the Royal Geography Society and eventually became assistant map curator for the British Military Survey. Twenty-five years later, he was a liaison officer attached to the Defense Map Agency in Washington, DC. He made contributions to the U.S. Board on Geographic Names, National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency, and the U.S. Geological Survey. In his retirement, he the embarked on a doctoral thesis that focused on the history of photolithography in mapping, in particular its relationship to the Ordnance Survey.