Awesome Historical Maps

Databases, search engines, map collections, research guides, and tools for exploring historical maps and cartography.

Historic(al) is formatted in this way as “Historic Maps” implies maps that are fairly modern and analogous with the modern landscape. This repo encompasses both recent history and earlier.

Contents

• Databases and Search Engines
• Map Collections
• Research Guides
• Tools
• Dealers
• Other
• Contribute

Databases and Search Engines

Meta historical mapping search engines and other geospatial data.

Search Engines

• Old Maps Online - Search catalog that allows visitors to explore and discover the beauty of historical maps depicting a past geographical place of their interest.
• National Library of Scotland’s Map Finder - Search tool for finding historical maps of Scotland and beyond from the National Library of Scotland.

Databases

• Open Historical Map - Collaborative project to build a free, editable map of the world’s history.
• World Historical Gazetteer - Collection of content and services that permit world historians, their students, and the general public to do spatial and temporal reasoning and visualization in a data rich environment at global and trans-regional scales.
• Pleiades - Community-built gazetteer and graph of ancient places, publishing authoritative information about ancient places and spaces under open license.

Map Collections

World

• The Pelagios Network - Long-running initiative that links information online through common references to places, connecting researchers, scientists and curators to link and explore the history of places.
• World Historical Atlas - World map which shows change of countries from the ancient time to the present time. Patched version here.
• Historia Cartarum - Website of Dr. John Wyatt Greenlee (Cornell University), providing resources, links and information about medieval maps.
• ChronoScope World - Time machine to explore the history of the world by browsing more than 4,200 high-resolution maps dating back to 14th century B.C., displayed on correct geo locations.
• British Library Maps Collection - Includes the King George III Topographical and Maritime collections, globes, digital mapping, manuscript maps, and visual arts collections.
• National Library of Scotland Map Collection - Extensive collection of maps from around the world including Ordnance Survey maps, county maps, estate maps, town plans, coastal charts, military maps, and atlases.
• Wikimedia Commons: Category - Maps - Extensive collection of maps on Wikimedia Commons.
• Archive.org - Images: Maps - Extensive collection of maps on the Internet Archive.
• The National Archives Map Collection (UK) - Maps and plans from 1485 to the early 1900s including maps of America, Canada and the West Indies, plus military and political Foreign Office maps.
• University of Oxford: Bodleian Map Room - Nearly two million maps and around 20,000 atlases, including material dating from the 14th to the 21st century, with strength in British material. Includes Digital Bodleian with 2,500+ digitised maps and atlases.
• David Rumsey Map Collection - Over 150,000 maps focusing on rare 16th through 21st century maps of North and South America, as well as maps of the World, Asia, Africa, Europe, and Oceania.
• r/oldmaps (Reddit) - User-uploaded collection of interesting maps.
• The Barry Lawrence Ruderman Collection - Collection of early maps covering all parts of the world, mounted on the Stanford University Image Gallery.
• Basel Mission Archives - Maps, sketches and plans relating to various parts of the world where the different Protestant missions operated.
• Birmingham Library Map Collection - Maps from the 16th century onwards with general coverage, most from the Rucker Agee collection.
• Cornell University Library Map Collection - Images from the Cornell University Library Map Collection.

Maritime

• Sea Atlases from the Harvard Map Collection - Collection of detailed charts and sailing directions from pilot books and sea atlases, beginning in the late 16th century.
• Nautical Maps - National Library of Wales - Nautical maps collection from the National Library of Wales.

Military and Campaigns

US Civil War

• Civil War Maps - Library of Congress collection of maps from the American Civil War.
• Civil War Treasures from the New-York Historical Society - Maps and other Civil War materials from the New-York Historical Society.

WW1

• British First World War Trench Maps, 1915-1918 (NLS) - Maps of the Western Front in the Great War depicting British and German trenches.
• WW1 Maps - National Library of Wales - World War 1 maps collection from the National Library of Wales.

WW2

• Narvik Bunkers - WW2 fortifications and related structures in and around Narvik, Norway.

Africa

• War Office Archive Maps (British Library) - Military intelligence maps and associated documents relating to East Africa.

Caribbean

• Caribbean Views - Over 1,200 images, maps and texts from the 18th and 19th centuries revealing contrasting experiences of life in the former British colonies.

Europe

• Mappa Mundi Explorer - Interactive explorer of the Mappa Mundi, believed to be made around the year 1300, showing the history, geography and destiny of humanity as understood in Christian Europe in the late 13th and early 14th centuries. Short documentary.
• Denmark: Royal Library and Copenhagen University Library Kort & Atlas - Images from the Map & Atlas collection covering all parts of the world with a strong focus on northern Europe.

Central Europe

Germany

• Landkartenarchiv - Archive of German mapping including world atlases, national maps, topographical maps, road maps, panorama maps, railway maps, postal code maps, city maps and special maps.
• Virtual Map Forum - Collection of historical and georeferenced maps of the Saxon State and University Library Dresden (SLUB), with a focus on Central Germany and the period from 1700 to 1950.

Switzerland

• Basel University Library - Maps of Switzerland and elsewhere, with a choice of resolution.

The Netherlands

• Amsterdam University Library Kaartencollectie - Maps covering The Netherlands and the rest of the world, including wall-maps, the work of C. Claesz, water-feature mapping, and more.
• Palaeogeographic Maps of the Netherlands - Palaeogeographic maps from the Rijksdienst voor het Cultureel Erfgoed.

Mediterranean

• Ancient World Mapping Center - Continues the work of the Classical Atlas Project that produced the Barrington Atlas of the Greek and Roman World, refining the geographic dataset for the ancient Mediterranean world.

Northern Europe

Sweden

• TORA (Topographical Register at the National Archives) - Geocoded register of historical settlement units in Sweden, and a linked open data service connecting historical sources and databases. GitHub.

United Kingdom

• British History Online - Historic maps of London from before 1800 and maps from the 19th-century series of the Ordnance Survey, plus a plethora of digitised primary sources throughout British history.
• Aerial Archaeology Mapping Explorer (Historic England) - Compilation of archaeological mapping data collected by Historic England over 30 years from modern and historic aerial photographic sources. More info.
• Digimap - Database viewer that includes a variety of georeferenced Ordnance Survey Maps for the UK, as well as various modern basemaps, elevation and other data (requires UK University login).
• Ordnance Survey National Grid Maps, 1944-1971 (NLS) - The most detailed Ordnance Survey maps after the Second World War, including all scales of mapping for Scotland, London, England and Wales.
• Matthew Paris’ Map of Britain (c. 1255 AD) - Online, clickable interactive version of Matthew Paris’ most famous map, the most comprehensive map of Britain of its time. More from the British Library.
• The Gough Map - 14th century map of Great Britain on vellum, depicting rivers and over 600 cities, towns and smaller settlements. Route analysis.
• Ordnance Survey Mapping (British Library) - The most comprehensive, publicly accessible collection of Ordnance Survey maps in the world.

England

• Key to English Place Names - Up-to-date guide to the interpretation of the names of England’s cities, towns and villages.
• Goad Fire Insurance Plans of the British Isles - Comprehensive collection of fire insurance plans produced by Charles E. Goad Ltd. dating back to 1885, invaluable sources of detailed information about urban areas and town centres.
• The Unveiling of Britain, 800-1600 - Selection of maps and views tracing the growing awareness of the form of the British Isles and their place in the wider world from 800 to 1600.

Hampshire

• Old Hampshire Mapped - Comprehensive catalogue of Hampshire (UK) maps and related items, illustrated from the County Museums Service Collection.

London

• Crace Collection of London Plans - Over 1,200 maps and plans of the capital brought together by the Victorian designer Frederick Crace.

Scotland

• Charting the Nation - Image collection including maps in atlases and bound books, together with manuscript and printed texts relating to the geography and mapping of Scotland from 1550 to 1740 and beyond.
• Roy Military Survey of Scotland, 1747-55 (NLS) - The ‘Great Map’ providing a uniform graphic snapshot of the entire Scottish mainland, the most detailed map surviving for many Highland areas for the entire 18th century.

Wales

• National Library of Wales Maps - Digital gallery of maps from the National Library of Wales.
  • Maps of Wales - Historical maps of Wales.
  • County Maps - County-level maps of Wales.
  • Estate Maps - Historical property and land maps from Welsh collections.
  • Town Plans - Historical town plans from Wales.
  • Welsh Tithe Maps - Collection of tithe maps documenting land ownership and usage in Wales.
  • Idris Mathias’ Manuscript Map of the Lower Teifi Valley - Beautiful manuscript map of the lower Teifi Valley.

North America

United States

• American Geographical Society Library Digital Map Collection - Maps ranging from early maps of Asia to historical maps of Wisconsin and Milwaukee, and other American cities, states, and national parks.
• New England Historic and Placename Directory - Directory containing over 100,000 place names.

Maine

• PastMaps - Collection of historical maps from Maine and more (paid).

Minnesota

• John R. Borchert Map Library, University of Minnesota - Material on Minnesota, the USA and the rest of the world.

New York

• The NYC Space/Time Directory - Digital time-travel service for New York City from the New York Public Library, using historical maps and collections rich in geospatial data.

Research Guides

General Research Guides

• A Guide to Reading and Analysing Historic Maps (NLS) - Step-by-step guide to reading and analysing historical maps from the National Library of Scotland.

Guides by Topic

• Cartographic Fakes, Forgeries and Facsimiles Likely to Deceive - Guide to identifying fake maps as well as a list of known forgeries.
• Guide to Figuring out the Age of an Undated World Map (xkcd) - Flowchart for determining when a world map was made.
• Researching Boundaries of Parishes and Counties (NLS) - Guide to researching historical boundaries using maps.
• Researching Climate Change (NLS) - Guide to using historical maps for climate change research.
• Researching House and Building History (NLS) - Guide to researching property history using historical maps.
• Researching Local History (NLS) - Guide to local history research using historical maps.
• Researching Woodland History (NLS) - Guide to researching the history of woodlands using historical maps.

Historical Maps in GIS

• Historical Maps in GIS by David Rumsey and Meredith Williams - Guide to using historical maps in Geographic Information Systems.
• Georeferencing in ArcGIS - Story map tutorial on georeferencing historical maps in ArcGIS.
• Georeferencing Tutorial for a Graduate Digital Humanities Course - Video tutorial by Ryan Cordell using ArcGIS.
• Digitising Map Data in QGIS - Tutorial on digitising map data in QGIS.
• Georeferencing in QGIS - Video tutorial on georeferencing in QGIS.
• Using LiDAR Layers for Landscape Research (NLS) - Guide to using LiDAR data with historical maps for landscape research.
• Re-using Georeferenced Maps (NLS) - Guide to re-using georeferenced maps within GIS and other software.
• Re-using Map Datasets (NLS) - Guide to re-using map datasets within GIS and other software.

Further Reading

• Map History/History of Cartography - Long-running general information site with information about old maps, both on the web and in the real world.

Tools

Applications

• QGIS - Free, open-source desktop GIS used for creating, editing, visualising, analysing and publishing geospatial information. Training material. Tutorials. LinkedIn Learning.
• ArcGIS Online - Completely web-based GIS useful for viewing, sharing and editing data, with an increasing amount of published open GIS data. Tutorial.
• MapAnalyst - Software application for the accuracy analysis of old maps, computing distortion grids and other types of visualizations that illustrate geometrical accuracy and distortion. Paper.
• Map Warper - Open source map geo-rectification, warping and georeferencing application.
• Georeferencer - Crowdsourced georeferencing for map library collections.
• HiRoNEx - Python tool for automatic, fully unsupervised extraction of historical road networks from historical maps.
• MapReader - End-to-end computer vision pipeline for exploring and analyzing images at scale, developed to analyze large collections of historical maps.
• desCartes - Recognises roads on old maps and converts them to vector lines for GIS applications and historical transport network analysis.
• Allmaps - Curating, georeferencing and exploring for IIIF maps across libraries, archives and museums worldwide.

QGIS Extensions

• Historical Maps Vectorization Tools - Toolbox to vectorize fluvial corridor objects on historical maps.

APIs

• Historic Maps API Layers (NLS) - Georeferenced map layers of Great Britain and Ireland for re-use from the National Library of Scotland.

Dealers

• eBay Antique Maps - Antique maps, atlases and globes on eBay.

Other

Organisations

• International Map Collector’s Society - Society of collectors, dealers, librarians, academics and enthusiasts who share their common interest in antique and vintage maps.

Links

• mapschool - Free introduction to geo, covering general geospatial terms, techniques and more.
• Cartography Portal on Wikipedia - Wikipedia’s portal for cartography-related articles.

Useful Awesome Lists

Digital Humanities

• Awesome Digital Humanities - Software for humanities scholars using quantitative or computational methods.

Geospatial

• Awesome GIS - All things Geographic Information Systems (GIS).
• Awesome QGIS - All things QGIS, the FOSS GIS program.
• Awesome ArcGIS - Resource list/wiki for ArcGIS users and developers.
• Awesome Earth Observation Code - Tools, tutorials, code, helpful projects, links about Earth Observation and geospatial.
• Awesome GEE - Google Earth Engine resources.
• Awesome GeoJSON - GeoJSON utilities that will make your life easier.
• Awesome Geospatial - Long list of geospatial tools and resources.
• Awesome Geospatial Companies - List of 500+ geospatial companies.
• Awesome Open Geoscience - Curated from repositories that make geoscientists’ lives easier or more awesome.
• Awesome Remote Sensing Change Detection - Datasets, codes, researchers and contests related to remote sensing change detection.
• Awesome Satellite Imagery Datasets - Satellite imagery datasets with annotations for computer vision and deep learning.
• Awesome Vector Tiles - Implementations of the Mapbox Vector Tile specification.

Contribute

Contributions welcome! Read the contribution guidelines first.