Historical Objects

Maps

Offering an overview of finding and using Primary Sources.

Maps and History

Because of that human involvement, maps become historical sources for both understanding the world and the people looking at it. Maps (like the 15th c. Kangnido map or 17th c. Pierre Du Val maps to the right) are, in short, one of the fascinating avenues for studying historical world views.

On this page, you will find links to large map collections in various digital repositories around the world. These collections focus on worlds, state, and regions. Be aware that local repositories--not featured here--can be excellent places to find town and regional maps. For resources on maps as a part of Digital Scholarship (DS), visit BC's Digital Scholarship portal .

What's on This Page

This page has a lot on it. You can use the following anchors (links down the page) to jump straight to a relevant box.

The databases listed here are just the beginning of our statistical and spatial data collections. See the Digital Scholarship Portal for a more complete list.

Broad Digital Collections

David Rumsey Map Collection
Over 95,000 Collection Maps and related images with global coverage from the 13th to the 21st centuries with excellent search capacities. Focuses on 16th–21st century maps of North and and South America, as well as maps of the world, Asia, Africa, Europe, and Oceania. The collection includes atlases, globes, school geographies, maritime charts, and a variety of separate maps including pocket, wall, children's and manuscript maps.
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Host: Stanford University
JCB Map Collection
More than 1,000 digital facsimiles of maps of the North American continent from the 16th to the 19th century from the John Carter Brown Library.
Maps and Geography - Europeana Collections
Explore more than 350,000 maps, globes, charts, and more (including ephemera such as compasses) with global coverage across multiple centuries from collections across Europe. Search capacity limited.
Maps at the LOC
With some 35,000 maps online, the Library of Congress provides an impressive array of maps dating from the 12th century to the present with emphasis on the US but global coverage.
Old Maps Online
Explore a Google Map interface, limiting by date ranges, and then link out to appropriate digitized historical maps from the various partner collections (including the British Library, the New York Public Library, and others).
Perry-Castañeda Library Map Collection
Fantastic collection of maps of places around the world hosted at the University of Texas at Austin. These maps are facsimiles of their historical collection as well as drawn from the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency and Army Map service as well as Aeronautical Charts. Includes links to other sites with maps by country.
UWM Libraries' Digital Collection: Maps
The American Geographical Society Library Digital Map Collection contains over 14000 maps, ranging from early maps of Asia to historical maps of Wisconsin and Milwaukee, and other American cities, states, and national parks.

World Digital Library This link opens in a new window
The World Digital Library is a Library of Congress project sponsored by UNESCO. Items in this digital library, including books, manuscripts, photographs, maps and sound recordings, are individually described and searchable in seven languages. Most countries and regions around the world are represented.

Further Digital Map Collections

Afriterra: The Cartographic Free Library
The Afriterra Library embraces a non-profit mission to access, preserve, and apply the cartographic record of Africa, enabling broader interpretation and transformative education. Covers over 500 years in 8 languages with over 3000 creators.
Antique Maps of China
The collection includes more than 230 maps, charts, pictures, books and atlases. It represents almost all samples of China maps produced by European cartographers from the 16th to 19th centuries. This cartographic archive vividly records the long history of cross-cultural exchanges between China and the West. Maps are based on 中国历史地图集。[From the Hong Kong University of Sicience & Techonology Library]

JSTOR Images This link opens in a new window
A search for "maps" will return users more than 14,000 results from across multiple centuries depicting multiple global spaces. Particularly strong from 1500 to the present with a heavy European and US focus but with strong Indian and East Asian representation (and other).

BnF Gallica: Maps
Thousands of maps from the 12th to the 21st centuries. Heavy emphasis on Europe but includes excellent global coverage (including 3d globes).
China's History in Maps [Harvard]
A collection of maps and cartegraphic information provided by Harvard University. Make sure to perform a search in their database for additional information and views.
China's History in Maps [Harvard]
A collection of maps and cartegraphic information provided by Harvard University. Make sure to perform a search in their database for additional information and views.
Harvard Map Library
The Map Collection houses geographic materials from all periods. Explore paper maps, geospatial data, and map-making software. Harvard Library can help you find ways to use maps and spatial thinking in your life, research, and teaching.
Historic Maps for Students & Teachers
Part of the Educational Technology Clearinghouse, this collection of world maps highlights political change through multiple periods across different areas of the globe.
Mapping Inequality
Interactive maps of redlining in the US. The materials included in Mapping Inequality offer an opportunity to explore the history of redlining in the Depression era and the entrenched contours of inequality that continue to shape American cities today.
Maps at British Museum
More than 1,000 digital facsimiles of some of the maps held in the British Museum.
Maps of Africa [Stanford]
Antiquarian maps of Africa and its islands, 1486 – ca. 1900.
Oxford Islamic Studies Online: Maps
Link to the collection's images and maps.

Historical Depictions of the World

Babylonian Map of the World (or Imago Mundi)
Call Number: British Museum (92687)
Publication Date: c. 6th century BCE
"Clay tablet; map of the world; shows the world as a disc, surrounded by a ring of water called the "Bitter River"; "Babylon" is marked as a rectangle at the right end of the Euphrates although the city actually occupied both banks of the river during most of its history; the river Euphrates flows south to a horizontal band, of which the right…"
Peutinger's Roman Map
Call Number: New York University
Publication Date: Ancient Roman
Stretches from Britain in the west to India in the east, covering a series of 11 parchment rectangles totaling over 6.7 meters (22 feet) in length.
Tabula Rogeriana by Muhammad al-Idrisi
Call Number: French National Library
Publication Date: 1154
Beatus Mappa Mundi by Beatus of Liébana
Call Number: British Library
Publication Date: 1050
Pietro Vesconte World Map by Pietro Vesconte
Call Number: Barry Lawrence Ruderman Map Collection
Publication Date: 1321
The Book of Curiosities (Kitāb Gharāʼib al-funūn wa-mulaḥ al-ʻuyūn (كتاب غرائب الفنون وملح العيون))
Call Number: Late 12th or early 13th century copy
Dulcert Map by Angelino Dulcert
Call Number: French National Library
Publication Date: 1339
"[Carte marine de la mer Baltique, de la mer du Nord, de l'océan Atlantique Est, de la mer Méditerranée, de la mer Noire et de la mer Rouge] / Hoc opus fecit angelino ]"
Cheonhado
Call Number: British Library (Maps C.27.f.14)
Publication Date: c. 1800
The map shows a large inner continent surrounded by sea. This represents China and its surrounding lands. Beijing, the Yellow River and Great Wall of China are visible, with the sacred Mount Meru at its centre. The rest of the world appears as outer islands, with the Trees of Sun and Moon beyond.

Maps of Historical Import

The Gough Map of Great Britain
The Gough Map is internationally-renowned as one of the earliest maps to show Britain in a geographically-recognizable form. Yet to date, questions remain of how the map was made, who made it, when and why.

The Book of Curiosities (Kitāb Gharāʼib al-funūn wa-mulaḥ al-ʻuyūn (كتاب غرائب الفنون وملح العيون))
Call Number: Late 12th or early 13th century copy

3d Maps and Mapping Ephemera

Les globes en 3D
The French National Library's 3d virtual representation of several historic globes.

Maps of Africa

Africa Map
A layered, interactive map of the African continent with multiple associated datasets and historic maps from the 17th century to the present.
Afriterra: The Cartographic Free Library
The Afriterra Library embraces a non-profit mission to access, preserve, and apply the cartographic record of Africa, enabling broader interpretation and transformative education. Covers over 500 years in 8 languages with over 3000 creators.
BnF Gallica: Maps
Thousands of maps from the 12th to the 21st centuries. Heavy emphasis on Europe but includes excellent global coverage (including 3d globes).
LOC Maps
More than 37,000 maps available through the US Library of Congress with collection focus between 1600 and the present.
Maps of Africa [Stanford]
Antiquarian maps of Africa and its islands, 1486 – ca. 1900.
Old Maps Online
Explore a Google Map interface, limiting by date ranges, and then link out to appropriate digitized historical maps from the various partner collections (including the British Library, the New York Public Library, and others).

Maps of China

Antique Maps of China
The collection includes more than 230 maps, charts, pictures, books and atlases. It represents almost all samples of China maps produced by European cartographers from the 16th to 19th centuries. This cartographic archive vividly records the long history of cross-cultural exchanges between China and the West. Maps are based on 中国历史地图集。[From the Hong Kong University of Sicience & Techonology Library]
Asian Maps Collection at USC
Digital facsimiles of maps from the 17th, 18th, and 19th centuries.
China's History in Maps [Harvard]
A collection of maps and cartegraphic information provided by Harvard University. Make sure to perform a search in their database for additional information and views.
China Dimensions Data Collection
This collection includes a variety of socioeconomic data, such as county-level geographic information system(GIS) databases, presented at a scale of 1:1,000,000." Emphasizes the 1990s.
China Historical GIS
A database of populated places and historical administrative units for the period of Chinese history between 222 BCE and 1911 CE. CHGIS provides a base GIS platform for researchers to use in spatial analysis, temporal statistical modeling, and representation of selected historical units as digital maps. [A Harvard project]
中央研究院--地圖數位典藏查詢系統
This is a map project developed by the Academia Sinica. It contains thousands of Chinese maps dated before 1949, not only held in Taiwan (most of them were taken to Taiwan before 1949), but also maps held in the Academy of Science, Japan. It is based on the book 近史所檔案館藏中外地圖目錄彙編. All maps in the database can be viewed online.

Maps of the Mediterranean

Oxford Islamic Studies Online: Maps
Link to the collection's images and maps.

US Specific Collections

Hargrett Historical Maps Database
The Hargrett Rare Book & Manuscript Library at the University of Georgia Libraries maintains a collection of more than 1,000 historic maps spanning nearly 500 years, from the sixteenth century through the early twentieth century. Although not limited to a single geographic subject, the collection heavily emphasizes Georgia as colony and state, along with its surrounding region.
Maps at the US National Archives
This is a link to the "advanced search" at the US National Archives. Note that you can limit by "Type of Archival Materials." Search results for digitized "maps and charts" will return more than 30,000 results with a heavy emphasis on military maps.
Maps [New-York Historical Society]
Include several collections, including the Robert Erskine-Simeon DeWitt maps, 1778-1783; Report on the Defence of the City of New-York, Accompanied With Maps, Views, and Topographical Plans, 1814; Map of the coast of Florida from St. Augustine to the St. Lucie River, 1605 [between 1854 and 1858]; Cadastral map of Manhattan, circa 1815; Tenement House Committee Strong-holds of poverty and Prevalence of disease maps, 1899.

US City Collections

Remember to check broader collections for more maps. Check out BC Libraries' Urban History Guide for city plans and architectural designs.

Maps at the Digital Commonwealth
Dozens of digital facsimiles of Boston, Massachusetts, and World maps located in repositories across Massachusetts.
Map Collection [Free Library of Philadelphia]
This collection enables you to see how Philadelphia's neighborhoods and streets have grown and changed. Use our interactive mapping tool to overlay atlases dating back as far as 1843 over today's street layout.
NYC Municipal Archives: Maps and Atlases
The gallery include "estate and farm" maps that illustrate how the 1811 grid plan sliced up the original farms and estates into lots suitable for development. The Waterfront Survey Maps provide a comprehensive record of waterfront development in New York City. Aerial photographic survey maps trace development over time. Atlases records detailed block and lot information.

O'Neill Library

Bapst Library

Burns Library

Educational Resource Center

Law Library

Social Work Library

Theology & Ministry Library

O'Connor Library

Institute for Advanced Jesuit Studies

Historical Objects

Maps

Maps and History

What's on This Page

Broad Digital Collections

Further Digital Map Collections

Historical Depictions of the World

Maps of Historical Import

3d Maps and Mapping Ephemera

Maps of Africa

Maps of China

Maps of the Mediterranean

US Specific Collections

US City Collections

Map Collections in Boston Archives