On Icelandic Nature Day, September 16, 2022, the Land Survey of Iceland handed over its ancient map collection to the National Library of Iceland – University Library for ownership and preservation. Gunnar Haukur Kristinsson, Director of the Land Survey of Iceland, signed a gift certificate on this occasion together with the National Librarian.

The core of the collection, 49 maps, was purchased by the Icelandic Survey of Iceland in 1993 from map collector Mark Edwin Cohagen, who had put a lot of care and effort into both collecting and finishing it. The collection contains a total of 52 maps, both special maps of Iceland and maps showing Iceland with other countries. The oldest map dates from 1547 and the youngest from 1865. The collection therefore spans over 300 years of Icelandic cartographic history and contains the most important maps from each period. The oldest map (Benedetto Bordone 1547) is the first printed special map of Iceland and shows people's ideas about the country when people knew little more than that Iceland was an island in the north. The youngest maps are then based on Björn Gunnlaugsson's map of Iceland from the mid-19th century, which is the first accurate scientific map of all of Iceland. The museum also contains, among other things, good copies of Abraham Ortelius' and Gerhard Mercator's maps of Iceland, made to the specifications of Bishop Guðbrandur Þorláksson. Maps that mark a turning point in people's knowledge of Iceland, its shape and size.

The National Library of Iceland – University Library will take digital images of all the maps and post them on the museum's website, islandskort.is, alongside images of other maps there. The website was launched in 1997 and now contains images of over 1,000 Icelandic maps.