Created by the Special Collections Department at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology Library, this fine collection of digitized antique maps will pique the interest of geographers and historians alike. The collection contains over 230 maps, charts, pictures, books, and complete atlases produced by European cartographers from the 16th to the 19th centuries. The collection serves as...
The first site about historical maps is the US Military Academy at West Point's History Department's Map Library (1). The page contains links to dozens of maps related to warfare from ancient times, the American Revolution, and the Napoleonic wars to the World Wars and other modern conflicts. Although map descriptions are not given and the main page seemed to have a problem loading correctly, the...
The James Ford Bell Library at the University of Minnesota provides the Historical Maps page as part of their main Web site. Users can view more than fifty maps online, each of which contain a short description of what the map is depicting. One example is a navigational map of Africa and the Atlantic and Indian Oceans that was designed to illustrate the first Dutch expedition to Java undertaken by...
Presented by the East Asian Library at Berkeley, in collaboration with David Rumsey and Cartography Associates, this Web site features 210 high-quality scanned maps from the Mitsui Library collection, which was originally purchased in 1949. The most compelling feature of this online collection is the technology deployed on the site that allows users different levels of functionality and...
On December 20, 1999, the city of Macau, which for four centuries had been a Portuguese settlement, was returned to the People's Republic of China. The entire administrative region is one-tenth the size of Washington, D.C., and has a population of approximately 460,000. In order to provide scholars and other interested parties with a selection of maps and visual ephemera related to the area's...
The British Library has a few maps in its collection, and it is an institution that is well-positioned to create an exhibition with the title "Magnificent Maps: Power, Propaganda and Art". This digital exhibit is meant to complement an in situ exhibit that explores these main themes through 80 different maps. On this site, visitors can look over four of these marvelous maps in exquisite detail,...
How do we find our way through the world, geographically speaking? Do we all carry around a type of "mental map" in our head, formed through experience and repetition? Some would say yes, some would beg to differ. Maps remain a powerful way to represent the world in all its spatial glory, and this online exhibit from The Field Museum explores the history of maps and their history over the...
Maps do more than point people in the right direction; "geographical maps are a mirror of what we, humans, know about the world around us." Few individuals contributed more to the map-making field than groundbreaking cartographer Gerardus Mercator. This project examines Mercator's map-making breakthroughs and mistakes, while also recognizing his lasting legacy. After all, "Mercator's projection is...
The mission of the NOAA Library and Information Services is to ensure the delivery of scientific, technical, and legislative information to users, including NOAA staff, the general public, academia, industry, and other government agencies. The library's Historical Maps and Charts Web site contains over 20,000 maps and charts from the late 1700s to the present, some of the nation's earliest...
For anyone who loves maps and the rich history of map-making, this project, based in the Department of Geography at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, will provide hours of pleasure and learning. The project focuses on drawing attention to the history of maps and mapping. Its flagship publication, a multi-volume series called the History of Cartography (which currently has 6 volumes, although...