Our Partners
OldMapsOnline.org indexes over 500.000 maps. This is thanks to the archives and libraries that were open to the idea and provided maps and links to their online content. All institutions are warmly welcome to join.
National Library of Scotland, Maps of Scotland
Maps in OldMapsOnline: 172587Featuring over 100,000 maps, primarily of Scotland (but also some of Great Britain), dating from the early 19th Century until the mid-20th Century. The collection focuses on detailed topographic maps by the Ordnance Survey but also includes bathymetrical charts and town plans. These maps are available through a viewer that will show entire individual map sheets.
USGS Historical Topographic Maps
Maps in OldMapsOnline: 170653In 1879, the USGS began to map the Nation's topography. This mapping was done at different levels of detail in order to support various land use and other purposes. As the years passed, the USGS produced new map versions of each area. The most current maps are available from The National Map. TopoView shows the many and varied older maps of each area, and so is useful for historical purposes—for example, the names of some natural and cultural features have changed over time, and the 'old' names can be found on these historical topographic maps.
Land Survey Office Czech Republic
Maps in OldMapsOnline: 172587The Central Archives of Surveying, Mapping and Cadastre, incorporated into the Land Survey Office (Prague), collects the results of extensive cadastral, geodetic, and cartographic works, which include cadastral maps of the Stable Cadastre since the first half of the 19th century, series of topographic maps based on military mapping of the state territory since the end of the 19th century, post-war military maps, contemporary state map series and collections of old maps for wider public use by schools, tourism etc.
The David Rumsey Map Collection
Maps in OldMapsOnline: 41280Probably the largest free online digital collection of historical topographic maps and images. Although the main focus of the collection is rare 18th and 19th-century North and South American maps, it also includes a variety of other historical cartographic materials covering the rest of the world. It is presented through a range of different viewers.
Charles University in Prague, The Map Collection
Maps in OldMapsOnline: 14987The collection is composed of approximately 130,000 map sheets, around 3,000 atlases, and 120 globes. Approximately 50% of this collection is made up of early prints and manuscripts dating from before 1850. Thanks to the financial support of the Ministry of Culture of the Czech Republic NAKI project, the digitized maps can be accessed in the UK repository.
New York Public Library, Map Divison
Maps in OldMapsOnline: 6943The collection from the map division of the New York Public Library presents well over 5000 maps of the world, but with particular emphasis on North America. They range in date from the late fifteenth century through to modern times. The library has two methods of viewing maps, either the map and catalog entry or the geographically located map images in Map Warper.
Saxon State and University Library Dresden (SLUB)
Maps in OldMapsOnline: 5693The map collection of the Saxon State and University Library, Dresden (SLUB) is one of the biggest map collections in Germany. It comprises over 177.000 maps and views, more than 22.000 of them are digitally available in the Map Forum of the library. In addition to the valuable historical maps (e.g., Ptolemy, Münster, Ortelius, Mercator, Gerard de Jode, and Blaeu), the main focus of the SLUB’s map collection lies on maps of Saxony and topographical maps of Germany and Europe. In 2013, the library started to georeference historical maps and publish them within the newly developed Virtual Map Forum 2.0, a spatial data infrastructure for historical maps. To date, this infrastructure offers easy access to thousands of georeferenced maps.
University Library of Bern
Maps in OldMapsOnline: 5143The University Library of Bern features an extensive collection of historical maps, its centerpiece being the Ryhiner map collection. It contains more than 16,000 maps, plans, and views dating from the 16th through the 18th century, covering the entire globe and the universe. It was compiled by Johann Friedrich Ryhiner (1732–1803), a Bernese patrician, statesman and geographer. The collection was donated to the library in 1865. All the maps are digitized, and a considerable part has been geocoded and is displayed in OldMapsOnline, the work on that and other collections is in progress.
The British Library, Map Library
Maps in OldMapsOnline: 4910The British Library's map collection spans the world, but for now, Old Maps Online provides access to two online collections: the Ordnance Surveyors' Drawings, made between the 1780s and 1840 during the first detailed survey of Britain, and the Crace Collection of maps of London, charting the development of the city from around 1570 to 1860.
Moravian Library, Mollova mapová sbírka
Maps in OldMapsOnline: 4004A variety of historical maps depicting the area of the Czech Republic and Europe more widely, dating from the mid 16th Century until the mid 19th Century. This collection is available through a viewer that will show entire individual map sheets and is searched using the same software as OldMapsOnline.
Utrecht University Library, Special Collections
Maps in OldMapsOnline: 2259The map collection of Utrecht University Library is part of the Special Collections department. It was not until the Geographical Institute was established in 1908 that the active management of the map collection started. A lot of fascinating additions were acquired in the early days of the Geographical Institute, which were used in education on Dutch overseas expansion and voyages of discovery. With the addition of large numbers of pedological and geological maps from the Utrecht University Geosciences Library in 2010, all Utrecht University map collections can now be found at the University Library Uithof. The map collection contains around 170,000 post-1850 maps and atlases and around 6,000 older cartographic documents. The library digitizes parts of the collection of old maps.
Royal Library of Belgium map collection
Maps in OldMapsOnline: 1814The cartographical documents held by the Maps and Plans Department of the Royal Library of Belgium date from the sixteenth century to the present day and represent Belgium and the whole world. They consist of more than 100.000 maps and plans on loose leaves, approximately 800 atlases, around thirty globes, and a substantial collection of books and journals on cartography. Many of the hand-drawn, engraved, and printed maps dating from before 1800 belong to the collection of valuable objects.
Harvard Library, Harvard Map Collection
Maps in OldMapsOnline: 1788One of the largest and oldest map collections in North America, the Harvard Map Collection is in the process of digitizing many of its most significant holdings, including a broad range of urban plans, maps of exploration, nautical charts, and cartographic curiosities. The digital collection ranges temporally from the early 16th century to the present and spatially across all regions of the globe.
ETH-Bibliothek Map Collection
Maps in OldMapsOnline: 1131The ETH-Bibliothek Map Collection comprises about 400,000 scientific, technical, and topographical maps as well as atlases dating from the 19th to the 21st centuries, including individual maps, map books, maps from cantonal surveys, street maps, panoramic maps, and satellite photographs. There are also rare and valuable prints of maps from the 18th and 19th centuries and approximately 4,000 atlases and books, a range of digital (electronic) maps and spatial data, along with up-to-date and historical aerial photos of Switzerland (orthophotos).
Norman B. Leventhal Map Center at the Boston Public Library
Maps in OldMapsOnline: 844The full collection of maps held at this institution dates from the fifteenth to the twentieth century and includes atlases, nautical charts, birds-eye views, land ownership, estate, war, and urban growth maps. A small subset of these is available through OldMapsOnline, focussed on the North-Eastern United States of America.
State Library New South Wales
Maps in OldMapsOnline: 838The State Library of New South Wales holds one of the most significant collections of maps, charts, and atlases in Australia, covering Australia, in particular New South Wales, the Pacific region, Antarctica, and extending to the rest of the world. The collections have developed over the past 150 years and include maps from the 15th to the 21st century.
Institut Cartogràfic i Geològic de Catalunya
Maps in OldMapsOnline: 717The Map Library of Catalonia is a service offered by the Cartographic Institute of Catalonia (ICC) to make available to users its cartographic, bibliographic, photographic and documentary archives. The Digital Map Library of the ICC, opened in 2007, is a repository that allows you to search, view, and download high-resolution maps of the world from the fifteenth century to the present.
Dutch National Archives
Maps in OldMapsOnline: 693Drawing together material from 100 different archives, this collection totals over 300,000 items. The maps in the collection include military, topographic, foreign, and pre-1900 Dutch maps, around half of which are hand-drawn. Links to 650 of these maps are included in Old Maps Online.
Technische Universität Darmstadt, University and State Library (ULB)
Maps in OldMapsOnline: 442The map collection of the University and State Library Darmstadt contains about 37.000 sheets from its early beginnings under Landgrave George I of Hesse-Darmstadt in the 16th to the 20th century (incl. posters, portraits, city views), as well as some 500 atlases. About 26.000 printed maps represent the largest part of the collection, besides a large number of military maps, city plans, and hand drawings – overall, with a focus on the Hessian region and Germany, but also many maps covering other parts of the world.
University of Manchester Map Library
Maps in OldMapsOnline: 115The University of Manchester Map Collection is one of the largest in the North West of England and comprises maps and atlases dating from the fifteenth to the twentieth centuries. The collection offers topographic and thematic mapping for the UK, as well as wide-ranging coverage for the rest of the world, with a strong emphasis on the North West of England. This small subset of online maps comprises large-scale detailed maps of the city of Manchester and its environs, documenting radical urban change from the Victorian era to modern times.
Wisconsin Historical Society
Maps in OldMapsOnline: 79The Wisconsin Historical Society is one of the largest, most active, and most diversified state historical societies in the US. Founded in 1846, it is a state agency and a private membership organization. The Wisconsin Historical Society helps people connect to the past by collecting, preserving, and sharing stories.
Biblioteca Nacional de Colombia
Maps in OldMapsOnline: 58The growing digital collection from this national library includes both national and international maps as well as larger-scale maps of strategically important locations. It includes maps of actual Colombia, Ecuador, Venezuela, and Panama from the sixteenth through to the twentieth century, and those for America and beyond, which go back to colonial times. Please note this host institution interface is in Spanish.
Colonial Portuguese maps of Cape Verde, São Tomé and Príncipe, Angola, East Timor
Maps in OldMapsOnline: 40Hydrographic and composite topographic maps of Cape Verde, São Tomé and Príncipe, Angola, East Timor
North Carolina Digital Heritage Center
Maps in OldMapsOnline: 10North Carolina Maps is a collaborative project between the North Carolina State Archives, the North Carolina Collection at UNC-Chapel Hill, and the Outer Banks History Center. The digital maps included range from towns and counties within the state up to the whole of North America, with the earliest images in the collection dating back to the late sixteenth century.
Hong Kong Historic Maps
Maps in OldMapsOnline: 7This website is dedicated to the discovery and display of historic maps of Hong Kong. Over the past few years I have been collecting historic maps to track the changes and development in the infrastructure. This site provides a collection of these maps along with overlays of key features and a comparison with modern mapping. All information is presented for personal use. Details of the map sources are provided under the map detail section.
Great River Arts
Maps in OldMapsOnline: 5Hand-painted historical maps and custom travel maps by Lisa Middleton.
Staatsarchiv des Kantons Zürich
Maps in OldMapsOnline: 1The Staatsarchiv is the repository for records from all Canton of Zurich public agencies. In its role as a public hard drive, the Staatsarchiv also preserves historical documents of the old city-state of Zurich from the Middle Ages, the Reformation, and the early modern period. These holdings are supplemented by documents of private origin, such as companies, associations, guilds, families, and individuals. The collection includes about 20,000 historical maps from the 16th to the early 21st century, including treasures of cartography by Jos Murer and Hans Conrad Gyger, as well as detailed plans of buildings, roads, lakes, and rivers.
