Maps: Historic Maps

• Historical US Geological Survey Topographic Maps
  The National Map Download Client covers entire USA with all editions going back in time. Maps are in GeoPDF format.  Can also search for a map name if you know it. The TopoView interface also provides GeoTIFF, JPG, and KMZ versions.
• USGS Historical Topographic Map Explorer
  From Esri, the company that makes ArcGIS software, but this is a browser-based interface that overlays the georeferenced historical quadrangles on a modern basemap, great for speedy access to old topos. Tiles adjacent maps. Download link goes to USGS TopoView (see above).
• Historic Digital NC Topographic Maps
  JPEG2000 images, georeferenced to North Carolina Stateplane, NAD 83, Feet.
• California Historic Topographic Maps
  This is a project from the University of California to provide Web access to the historic topographic quadrangles produced by the U.S. Geological Survey between 1895 to the present. Selected editions for maps covering the greater San Francisco Bay are currently available.
• Google Earth Library's Historic Topo Maps
  Download the indexes first, then see what's available in .kmz format.
• New England Historic USGS Maps
  Fifteen-minute (1:62,500 scale) USGS topographic quadrangle maps of New England states, scanned and downloadable in quarter quadrangles as JPEG images (about 1.75-2 megabytes each).

Library of Congress Map Collections: 1597 -1988
Leads to many scanned images of historical maps in the library's collections in the following categories:

• cities and towns (includes Sanborn Fire Insurance Maps and the panoramic map collection)
• conservation and environment (includes the Mapping the National Parks collection)
• cultural landscapes (includes maps of Liberia)
• discovery and exploration
• military battles and campaigns (includes the Civil War Maps Collection and WWII Situation Maps)
  [see also U.S. National Historic Site maps at The University of Texas]
• transportation and communication (includes railroad map collection)
• general maps.

Selected images online:

• U.S. cities and towns from the Library of Congress collections, mostly panoramic ("bird's-eye-view") maps.
• Sanborn Fire Insurance Maps digital collection from the Library of Congress. Detailed U.S. city plans.
• U.S. historical city maps, many from the Automobile Blue Book (1920) or from U.S. government agencies, scanned by The University of Texas at Austin's Perry-Casteñeda Library Map Collection.
• Chicago in the 1920's and 1930's  Maps depicting social and demographic characteristics of Chicago, by Census Tract.
• Dutch city plans from Blaeu's Toonneel der Steden (1652). / Another interface. / Clickable graphic index.
• Historic Cities: The maps available so far depict European cities, mostly from the 16th century. Options to view low- or high-resolution images and to purchase poster versions of some maps.
• London: Map of John Snow's London in 1859  The user can zoom in on this detailed mid-19th century map of London.
• Paris in the 19th Century  From the University of Chicago Library.
• Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania  The Historic Pittsburgh Maps Collection consists of scanned plat maps and will eventually show property lines and land ownership from 1872 to 1939.

American Geographical Society Digital Map Collection
Over 1600 scanned historic maps from this unit of the University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee. Online viewer or can print a page-sized view, but can only download thumbnails.

Australia: Trove Maps
Maps digitized by the National Library of Australia, covering Australia and the rest of the world.

Australia: J.A. Ferguson and Petherick collections
Digitized from old pamplets in the National Library of Australia, 19th and early 20th century, containing such titles as emigrant’ guides, colonial handbooks, railway reports.

Britain: Historic maps at the National Library of Scotland
Scanned maps from 1560 to the early 20th century including coverage of England and Wales as well as Scotland. The largest set is the very large scale 6 inch to a mile (1:10,560) coverage of England and Wales, dating 1842-1952. Plans in the works to georeference these.

Britain: John Speed's Theatre of the Empire of Great Britaine
66 proof maps prepared for an atlas dating from the early 1600s. Maps of Counties as well as many detailed city plans.

British Geological Survey (BGS) Maps Portal
High resolution viewing images of almost all small and medium scale maps produced by the British Geological Survey since mapping started in 1832. It includes the key 1:63,360 and1:50,000 maps of England and Wales and of Scotland. To find the sheet number one of these, you need to search the Bookshop http://shop.bgs.ac.uk/Bookshop/ or refer to the index sheet http://shop.bgs.ac.uk/Bookshop/mapIndex.cfm.

Canada at Scale
An exhibit of historic maps of Canada digitized by the National Archives of Canada.

CaribMap
Over 1800 digitized historic maps of the Caribbean area dating from the 16th through the 20th century. Also includes a Resources page linking to other digitized Caribbean maps online.

Cartographic Images
Scanned images of antique maps or details from such maps available for downloading. Maps are divided into these time categories: Ancient (6000 BC - AD 400), Medieval (AD 400-1300), Late Medieval (1300-1500), and Renaissance (1500-1880).

David Rumsey Collection
High resolution map images available for viewing online, focusing on 18th and 19th century North and South American cartographic materials. The image browser allows zooming and panning employing dynamic HTML and JavaScript. An alternative Java Client can also be downloaded to view the images.

Disneyland Maps
History of Disneyland through maps, since 1958.

Dutch Cartographers
Selected images of Dutch city maps from Blaeu's Toonneel der Steden (1652), the Janssonius map of the Netherlands (1658), De Vyerighe Colom of Jacob Aertsz Colom, and the Civitates orbis terrarum of Braun and Hogenberg (1572-1617).

Fire Insurance Maps
Large scale maps of US cities, showing building footprints and construction, as well as detailed infrastructure information.

• Pre-1923 Sanborn maps for North Carolina cities have been digitized by UNC-Chapel Hill.
• Original paper copies of these maps in color are available for research in the North Carolina Collection at the Wilson Library at UNC-Chapel Hill.
• The Library of Congress has scanned many Sanborn maps from all over the U.S., Mexico, and Cuba.
• Lists of other digital collections:
  • From the Perry-Casteñeda Library, The University of Texas at Austin. Also, links to history, legends, etc.
  • Freely accessible Sanborn maps (nationwide), a listing from the Library of Congress.
  • Links from the University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee
• How to Read a Sanborn Map: Detailed Storymap from Ohio State, with lots of images as examples.
• Legend: A typical legend to the symbols used on these maps has been scanned by the University of Indiana.
• Abbreviations: Detailed list of abbreviations that might be found on Sanborn maps, compiled by Cal State, Northridge. Another list of abbreviations and sample legend has been compiled by EDR, Inc.

George III's Collection of Military Maps
George III's collection of military maps comprises some 3,000 maps, views and prints ranging from the disposition of Charles V's armies at Vienna in 1532 to the Battle of Waterloo (1815).

German World War II Captured Maps Collection
Scanned by the UC Berkeley Library.

Globes
Antique globes from the Bibliothèque Nationale de France, with a 3-D viewing interface.

Hargrett Library Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Historical Maps Database
At the University of Georgia. Results will indicate whether a map is available digitally or if you need to visit the library.

Historical Maps of the United States
Scanned at The University of Texas at Austin's Perry-Casteñeda Library Map Collection.  Mostly maps depicting U.S. history that were published in the National Atlas of the United States (1970).  Includes some 19^th and early 20^th century U.S. Government maps, maps of U.S. National Historic Sites, and many U.S. historical city maps of the same period from the Automobile Blue Book and the U.S. Geological Survey. 

MapForum.com
An online magazine (now defunct) devoted to antique maps.

MapHist Discussion Group
"MapHist, the Map History Discussion List, is an e-mail discussion group whose primary focus is historical maps, atlases, globes and other cartographic documents."

Map History / History of Cartography
A thorough guide compiled by Tony Campbell, former Map Librarian at The British Library. Besides the search box, you can enter the site using either the "Sitemap" (broad subject categories) or the "Index" (alphabetical listing of detailed subjects).  Includes the following lists of web sites: Images of Early Maps on the Web and Web Articles and Commentaries on Specific Topics in the History of Cartography.

Office of Coast Survey Historical Map and Chart Collection
Over 200 years of US government charts and maps.

Panoramic Maps, 1847-1922
Bird's-eye view maps from the Library of Congress.

Perry-Casteñeda Library, University of Texas, Historical Maps
Mostly 19th and 20th century maps, many from out-of-copyright atlases.

Road Map Collectors of America
An organization whose members collect fold-up highway maps.

Sanborn Maps: See Fire Insurance Maps, above.

Silkmaps.com
This site contains information on maps printed on silk during World War II by Britain and the United States for easy portability and durability, to be used by troops in escape and evasion. Includes listings and of known silk maps produced by the US Army Air Force (AAF) and by Naval Air Combat Intelligence-Hydrographic Office (NACI-HO). Includes small images of the maps.

Singapore OneSearch Spatial Discovery
Historic maps of Singapore can be viewed in an online interface that overlays them on a modern basemap for context.

State Maps, 1895
From a Rand-McNally Atlas of the World.  From index, click on state to get to a link to these maps (there are also other kinds of maps for each states).

State Maps, 1895
As above, but from a different site.  Allows you to download smaller county-sized maps.

University of Chicago Scanned Maps

Scroll down to "Compilations of Scanned Maps." Includes historic material from there collection relating to the history of Chicago and Midwestern cities, historic city plans from around the world, 18th and 19th century Europe, and urban rail transit.

Waterloo: History of the war in France and Belgium, in 1815
"Maps and plans are from a folio issued to accompany William Siborne’s standard work on Waterloo.... Each of the four battles depicted—Quatre Bras, Ligny, Waterloo and Wavre—is shown at two or more times of day."

William Smith Materials
Maps, sections and other material from the Library collections of the Geological Society relating to British geologists who compiled the world's first geological map in 1815.