Online Map Libraries (Real World Cartography)

[Milan Neddich]

NASA has some pretty cool maps and sattelite images.
http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/targetFamily/Earth
http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/jpeg/PIA03395.jpg
Im finding them fairly useful for something im trying to do, at least.

[ChickPea]

Hadn't noticed this thread before, but I thought I'd add a link.

Scotland's National Library has a bunch of online maps here:

http://maps.nls.uk/

They have a fantastic map of St. Andrews (of golf fame) which makes me smile so much every time I look at it ...

http://maps.nls.uk/towns/detail.cfm?id=215

A couple of those towers are of skyscraper proportions compared to the rest of the buildings!

[ecoid]

http://www.reddit.com/r/MapPorn/new/
http://imgur.com/r/MapPorn
https://twitter.com/Amazing_Maps
https://twitter.com/MapsAndFlags
http://mapsareamazing.com/
http://chartsbin.com/
https://twitter.com/BeautifulMaps
http://mapsontheweb.zoom-maps.com/
http://www.vividmaps.com

[ChickPea]

Saw this on Reddit and not sure if it's been posted here already, but the University of Chicago has made the first three volumes of 'The History of Cartography' available for free in PDF format. There are some fantastic old maps here! Link below:

http://www.press.uchicago.edu/books/HOC/index.html

[Kanny]

Hiya guys I posted this in another area of the forum not knowing that this area existed. I hope some of its of use (apologies for any entries you guys already have).

The following is just a collection of various links that come to mind, but I'm sure there are many many others that could be added as well. Sorry for not putting them in any great order, they are really just in the order I thought of them in...

My library (Cambridge University Library) has for example digitised some very rare proof sheets that John Speed composed before his first edition was compiled. You can view these as part of the digital library (http://cudl.lib.cam.ac.uk/) here:

http://cudl.lib.cam.ac.uk/view/PR-AT...-00061-00001/1

Beyond that you may be interested in both the British Libraries digital collection of fully geo-referanced maps (you can even have a go at geo-referencing some yourself) here:

http://www.bl.uk/maps/georeferencingmap.html

This link also takes you to the wider lists of digital map the BL has to offer:

http://www.bl.uk/reshelp/findhelpres...ebres/scanned/

NLS (National Library of Scotland) also have an vast collection of maps surrounding the hugely influential OS (Ordnance Survey) era of British mapping. You can view those here:

http://maps.nls.uk/

Moving on to other sources there is the US Library of Congress map collection:

http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/gmdhtml/

The Bibliothèque nationale de France and their collection:

http://gallica.bnf.fr/html/cartes/cartes

Those of you more interested in things like the early treatise concerning cartography may be interested in The Book of Curiosities of the Sciences and Marvels for the Eyes, an Arabic text, which you can view here:

http://cosmos.bodley.ox.ac.uk/hms/home.php

Then you can enter the age of sale and exploration and view various Caribbean maps printed since the early 16th century, these maps are put on show by Caribmap and you can view them here:

http://www.caribmap.org/index.php

CartoMundi is a collaborative project producing a union catalogue of maps and plans of all parts of the world though originally concentrating on Mediterranean countries.You can view those here:

http://www.cartomundi.fr/site/

Cartoteca Digital also have a wide collection of maps showing Catalonia, Spain and other parts of the world. You can view those here:

http://cartotecadigital.icc.cat/

Moving back to my home country (England) Cheshire council have scanned a great many maps including early early tithe maps which you can view here:

http://maps.cheshire.gov.uk/tithemaps/

The county of Devon has also been digitised, as shown by these maps:

http://www.printed-maps-of-devon.eu/

Then we have more private entities like the David Rumsey Historical Map Collection, which consists of a great many early maps, viewable here:

http://www.davidrumsey.com/

The Dudley Knox Library is a useful source for redirecting you to various forms of military mapping, which you can view here:

http://libguides.nps.edu/maps?hs=a

If your more interested in things like genealogical searches (and your English) vai the cartographic medium then mapping tools like those offered by Family Search may be useful:

http://maps.familysearch.org/

If you want to look at an example of how an old map can be re-rendered in a digital format and used as a result Faden's Map of Norfolk may be of some use to you:

http://www.fadensmapofnorfolk.co.uk/index.asp

I know some of you like to make board game maps, well how about looking at some early examples of various early game boards:

http://www.giochidelloca.it/index.php

Another useful source for viewing British mapping can be seen via GenMaps, viewable here:

http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb....aps/index.html

Going back to America you can view the Geologic Atlas of the United States, published by USGS between 1894 and 1945 and now available via Texus A&M University here:

http://oaktrust.library.tamu.edu/handle/1969.1/2490

GeoWeb is a collection of about 29,000 cartographic and graphic images, with bibliographical details, available either in low resolution or high resolution with a digital watermark from the Biblioteca Nazionale Marciana, Venice. You can view it here:

http://geoweb.venezia.sbn.it/cms/en/

You may also want to view a zoomable, panable digital version of the Gough Map - which is believed to date from around 1360 here:

http://www.goughmap.org/

Ever heard of the Mappa Mundi? Well take a look at this digital view of Herefords prize map:

http://www.themappamundi.co.uk/

Historic Cities is a useful collection letting you look at the maps, literature, documents, books and other relevant material concerning the past, present and future of historic cities. View it here:

http://historic-cities.huji.ac.il/historic_cities.html

The Historic Counties Trust has put together a digital archive of the borders of the historic counties of the United Kingdom at a scale of 1:100000. This includes a downloadable file containing all boundary data. [Note that county borders have changed over time]. View it here:

http://www.county-borders.co.uk/

Holy Land Maps is, unsurprisingly a collection of the Holy Land from the Eran Laor Collection. View it here:

http://www.jnul.huji.ac.il/dl/maps/pal/html/

And finally the Sainsbury Institute for the Study of Japanese Arts and Cultures in Norwich has some beautiful Japanese maps that may be of interest to some of you:

http://sainsbury-institute.org/library/cortazzi-maps/

[Filip]

Those are great man

[Veldrin]

Hey there. I was looking for level line maps of random Earth areas, and I found out something pretty cool: ftp://geoftp.ibge.gov.br/cartas_e_ma...escala_250mil/
Those maps are from the the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE, in Portuguese), provided for free, and may be really helpful for the ones who want to get inspiration for topographic maps

[Deeds]

I did a search and didn't see it already listed on the site:

Swisstopo (the Swiss federal map agency): https://www.swisstopo.admin.ch/
lots of goodies there. And its in Francais, Deutsch, English, and Italian!

Also, I think that any of us who use (or try in my case) or enjoy the relief shading style owe Eduard Imhof some appreciation: http://www.reliefshading.com/cartographers/imhof/

[Deeds]

accidentally double posted, edited to remove the same message as above (higher powers - feel free to delete this)

[ProfGremlin]

Evening, All,

The Jacksonville Public Library, Main Branch, has a room dedicated to the Lewis Ansbacher Map collection. There are some really interesting styles and perceptions on display. "... the magnificent Morris Ansbacher Map Room, which houses the Lewis Ansbacher Map Collection with over 240 antiquarian maps and engravings."

https://www.jaxpubliclibrary.org/res...map-collection