Maps & Cartography: Notable Map Collections
Find a Collection
The Map and Geospatial Information Round Table (MAGIRT) of American Library Association (ALA) has created the Online Guide to U.S. Map Collections. This map is continuously updated.
Use this map to:
Find map libraries containing resources on a certain topic
- Find map libraries near where you live, work or go to school
- Find map libraries specializing in a specific geographic region
- Find map libraries to visit on vacation!
Map Collections in the World (Selection)
- University at Buffalo Map Collection. On the collection, and: resources, maps and charts, links to local government and other map and geography sources, GIS, as well as special pages: Buffalo, New York Neighborhoods Map , Buffalo, NY in Maps and others.
- Afriterra. Cartographic library assembling and preserving original rare maps of Africa.
- Alabama Maps (University of Alabama). Maps covering world, countries, states. Maps include: outline, historical, current, in pdf, jpeg, and Mr. Sid. Has: Historical Map Index; Contemporary Map Index.
- American Geographical Society Digital Map Collection (American Geographical Society Library). Historic and rare maps, ranging from early maps of Asia to historical maps of Wisconsin and Milwaukee, and other American cities, states, and national parks. The main library site leads to more map collections.
- American Memory Map Collections (Geography and Map Division, Library of Congress). Includes historic and other maps, with a variety of search indexes.
- Arctic and North Polar Region Maps (Rasmuson Library, University of Alaska Fairbanks). Collection of published and manuscript maps from the 19th century on.
- Atlas of Historical County Boundaries (Newberry Library). Maps and text data about creation and subsequent changes (dated to the day) in the size, shape, and location of every county in the United States (including the District of Columbia). Also includes non-county areas, unsuccessful authorizations for new counties, changes in county names and organization, and the temporary attachments of non-county areas and unorganized counties to fully functioning counties.
- Bodleian Library Map Room
- CIA World Factbook Reference Maps. Has digital maps of world nations and regions.
- Cornell University Map Collection. Includes collection descriptions (and some digital maps), GIS of state and regional topics, links to other map/cartographic resources.
- David Rumsey Historical Map Collection. Amazing digital collection of 10,000+ rare 17th-19th century North and South America maps and other cartographic materials, with additional historic maps of the World, Europe, Asia and Africa.
- Geologic Atlas of the United States (Texas A & M. Map and GIS Collections and Services) Set of 227 folios published by the U.S. Geological Survey between 1894 and 1945. Each folio includes both topographic and geologic maps for each quad represented in that folio, as well as description of the basic and economic geology of the area.
- Harvard Map Collection
- Hipkiss's Scanned Old Maps. Variety of scanned maps, travel maps, etc.
- History of Europe (Periodis Web: a Historical Atlas and Gazetteer of Europe from Year 1 to 2000). Interactive atlas covers Europe, by century, in two periods: Europe 1-1000 A.D.; 1100 to 2000. Samples: Europe 1 AD ; Rome 100; 1000; 1500; 2000.
- John R. Borchert Map Library. University of Minnesota (Twin Cities). Includes all formats and themes.
- Linguistic Maps (Mutur Zikin). Extensive collection of detailed maps showing languages spoken, by country, continent, and region. Also has regional linguistics maps for the United States.
- Lunar Topographic Orthophotomap (LTO) Series. Digital images of 1:250,000 scale maps produced by the Defense Mapping Agency. Other digital atlases of the Moon (and other planetary bodies) are available from the main site of the Lunar and Planetary Institute.
- Map And Geographic Information Center (MAGIC). University of Connecticut. GIS, aerial imagery, conventional maps. Emphasis on Connecticut, but has more.
- Mapping Globalization. Intended for everyone interested in globalization. Website goal: empirical work on globalization as widely accessible as possible. Contains an expanding set of resources for students, instructors, and researchers, and provides a forum for empirical research on globalization. Especially adding raw data and in the visualization of such data, including maps and animations.
- New York Public Library Map Division.
- Osher Map Library and Smith Center for Cartographic Education. University of Southern Maine, Portland. Collection includes rare and unique maps dating back to the 15th century.
- Perry-Castañeda Library Map Collection. University of Texas at Austin. This is one of the most comprehensive sources for digitized maps and for links to maps in other collections.
- State University of New York at Stony Brook Map Library. Includes: New York State Map Pathfinder. Digital images of maps of New York State (historic maps, panoramic maps, many other).
- Subway - Historical Maps of New York City's Subway system. Also go to main map page , which has route maps and related maps, as well as NYC Omnibus Corp. maps.
- Sanborn Fire Insurance Map Collections. Sanborn maps for NYS and U.S.
- Transportation Maps (Selected list)
- Subway Route Finder (Page & Moy travel agency). Subway route maps and information for major cities worldwide, including New York, Toronto, London, Paris, and others.
- Subway Maps [of world cities] (Amadeus Global Travel Distribution). Select maps for cities on five continents.
- Subway Page: Links to World Subway and Other Transportation Information Resources. Subway and various methods of transportation maps and data, for many cities around the world.
- See also: Transportation Maps at UB.
- University of Alabama Map Collection
- University of California at Berkeley Earth Sciences & Map Library. Collections include, maps, atlases, aerial photos, and other materials. Has links to good collections, mapping Web resources.
- University of Chicago Map Collection
- World Mapper. An excellent source for maps of the World that show demographics, economics, and other statistical sets. Almost 400 maps that display data by varying the size of each country based on statistical data sets.
- Yale University Map Collection.