Woodward directed the project until his death in August 2004; Matthew H. Edney became director in July 2005.
The Project works to prepare The History of Cartography, a multivolume series established by Woodward and Brian Harley.
The six volumes of the History, all published by the University of Chicago Press, are: Harley and Woodward's initial scheme was for a four-volume series, each volume to contain several full-length chapters by different authors, all to be published by 1992.
The growth of Volume 3 to have been larger than the entire series as originally conceived demonstrated how unfeasible the established format would be for what was now planned as the final three volumes, dealing with the modern period.
Woodward therefore decided, after much consultation, to turn the volumes into interpretive encyclopedias.