Comprising collections of static, scanned-in images viewable online. For links to selected interactive web mappers, see our page for Interactive Mapping on the Web.
Historical maps | Modern maps
Historical Maps
Great Britain
The British Library collections
- Collect Britain, with several themed collections, including "Military Alert" of Ordnance Surveyors' drawings; "Britain Uncovered", mapping of the British Isles between 800 and 1600, and "Streets of London", mapping the capital from the 16th to 19th centuries.
- Images Online: maps and views a number of historic maps and landscape views and a Chinese globe. These are all avialable to order in digital format, for download or on CD.
- Mapping History, a newly-updated and enlarged online educational area using maps from the British Library's collections.
- Turning the Pages: Mercator's 16th century manuscript Atlas of Europe.
- Roy Map: searching and viewing of this 18th century military mapping treasure. A joint project of the National Library of Scotland and the British Library.
Superior-quality digital copies of the Ordnance Surveyors' Drawings may be viewed in the Maps Reading Room.
The National Archives of England, Wales and the United Kingdom
View samples of images in their image library.
Natural Science Museum - Picture Library - Maps
This collection is made up of expedition maps and miscellaneous maps from around the world, most interestingly, William Smith's maps of the geology of Great Britain. Many may be purchased as digital or transparency, or a low resolution may be downloaded free online.
Old-maps.co.uk
Late 19th-century OS mapping. Zoomable and accompanied by modern maps and aerial photos.
England
and Wales
MAPCO : Map And Plan Collection Online
A small but high-quality collection of scanned 18th and 19th century maps and plans of London and the British Isles. Includes an exceptional reproduction of Civitas Londinum:
A Survey Of The Cities Of London And Westminster,
The Borough Of Southwark And Parts Adjacent
In The Reign Of Queen Elizabeth c1560.
Genmaps: England and Wales
Links to numerous projects gathered from the web, offering scanned historic maps of varying quality. Organized by county. Also a segment on adminstrative boundary changes for those looking for historic county boundaries.
Gardiner's Atlas of English History
Scanned copy of "A School Atlas of English History" ed. by Samuel Rawson Gardiner. London: Longmans, Green, and Co., 1892. Images are presented in html with no zoom or pan features, but good as reference. Scanned and posted to the web by Pam Rietsch of USGenNet.org.
Old Hampshire Mapped
An excellent selection of high-resolution historical maps of Hampshire County, with text.
The Map Case- Oxford University
A small collection of scanned images from the Bodleian's map collection, with a focus on the city of Oxford.
Map of London
Outstanding-quality images of Edward Stanford's Library Map of London and its Suburbs, 1862-1871. Find areas by text or graphic.
MOTCO Reproductions
Maps of London from 1705 to 1862, including Stanford's (1862) Cary's (1786) Horwood's (ca 1799) and Roque's (1746).
Charles Booth Online Archive, London School of Economics
Poverty maps of London that show the social and housing situation in London at the turn of the century. The interface compares Charles Booth's maps with modern street mapping.
Maps of London
A number of large-scale, 19th and early 20th c. maps, including some focussing on the London docks, and thematic maps such as for transport and cycling.
Scotland
Charting the Nation: maps of Scotland and associated archives 1550-1740
A University of Edinburgh project to provide access to over 3500 maps of Scotland,1550 to 1740.
National Library of Scotland online maps
A collection of online maps of Scotland, containing some of Pont's work, military surveys, bathymetrical charts, town plans, and early maps of Scotland. Reproductions may be ordered from this site.
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From the Western Hemisphere
American Memory, Library of Congress (USA) map collections, 1500-Present.
An excellent site, containing more than 10,000 online maps from 1500 to the present, depicting areas all over the world. Requires free viewers to download maps.
David Rumsey Map Collection
A superb collection containing 8000 items, focusing on 18th and 19th century maps of the Americas, but also including maps from other parts of the World.
Bibliotheque nationale Quebec Digital Collections: maps and plans
A collection of more than 1,000 maps of Québec, from the days of New France to the mid-20th century
Online map collection, Michigan State University
Foci are Michigan, US and Canada, and Africa.
MAGIC Scanned historical map collection, Univ. of Connecticut
Maps of the US Northest and Connecticut from the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries. Produced by a library, this has excellent metadata and a selection of formats/ways to view.
The Yale map collection
Several collections have been scanned in, including antiquarian maps, historical city plans, and globe collections, offering world-wide coverage.
Modern Maps
UK Geography, National Statistics
This government site presents pdf maps of the main territorial units used in UK National Statistics and other admistrative and governmental work. Includes health, adminstrative, Census, postal, electoral boundaries and more. See Interactive Mapping for more maps of contemporary UK government statistics.
Outline maps of Great Britain, Ordnance Survey
Simple, small scale, outline maps freely downloadable in a number of formats: tif, eps, pdf, gif.
Perry-Castañeda Library Map Collection, Univ. of Texas, Austin, Libraries
A geographically wide-ranging collection of current map images of counties, continents,and regions. Because most are produced by the U.S. Central Intellegence Agency, copyright does not present considerable difficulties.
Military Topographic Maps: Mapstor
Digital images of Soviet military topographic maps, published during 1960-2003, for download, free of charge.
United Nations Cartographic Section
Maps of every country in PDF format for easy printing. Also world maps and thematic maps.
The Atlas of Canada
An excellent site containing viewable and downloadable archives of national atlases, plus modern thematic maps covering both the human and physical geography of Canada.
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