The only
comprehensive listing of early map image sites. The
monthly additions are indicated thus, e.g. {March
2002} at the end of the
entry. Since the symbols { } are not used elsewhere, you can search on
those elements [enter Ctrl+F]; e.g. 2002} will find entries added
at any time in that year)
Please notify any corrections or additions to the editor, Tony
Campbell:
Make sure to consult its copyright statement
before using any of the images you find
Australia - Canberra (a selection
of 73 maps and plans (1916-25) by the architect Walter Burley Griffin (1876-1937),
enlargeable to high res. - National Library of Australia) {June, 2011}
Australia. 'Crux - rare maps from the
State Library of NSW' (high res. MrSID images, ranging from a good selection of world maps to detailed Australian
subjects - "a selection of 85 [actually 89] manuscript and printed maps and charts, which illustrate the unveiling of the mysteries
of the islands and the continents of the Southern Hemisphere between the sixteenth and eighteenth centuries") {March, 2004}
Australia. 'The Dixson map collection' (1,081 maps, enlargeable to high res. via Zoomify, reflecting
the interests of Sir William Dixson (d.1952) in 'early navigation, geography and the European exploration and
settlement of the Pacific, in particular Australia', including some MS maps of Australian explorers; see also a brief
illustrated commentary’ - State Library of New South Wales) {July, 2011}
Australia. 'Map and Plan
Collection Online' (a steadily growing selection of very high res. maps, primarily of
London, other parts of the British Isles, and Australia, designed for genealogists; for a listing,
and updates, see News - David
Hale, MAPCO) {February, 2011}
Australia. 'Maps of Australia'
('search over 100,000 maps of Australia held in Australia's libraries, from the earliest mapping to the
present' [apparently there are about 4000 maps available, December 2008]; searching is via a zoomable
index map, and you can select just 'Discovery and exploration', and sort by date; the images can be
progressively zoomed to high res. - National Library of Australia) {December, 2008}
Australia. National Library of Australia
(lists the ‘highlights’ of the collection; evidently tens of thousands are available digitally; use ‘Advanced
search’ in the catalogue for ‘Format: Map’) {June, 2017}
Australia. National Library of Australia.
'Trove' ('search maps of Australia and the world. Includes printed sheets, atlases, globes, aerial
photographs, star charts, nautical charts and tourist maps'). Alternatively browse the map collection, selecting from Add Limits: 'NLA digitized material'
{January, 2011; amended June 2011}
'Australia on the Map' (originally set
up to celebrate the first documented landing on Australia in 1606, this includes, under 'Research Resources':
Landings List, First Contacts, Background Papers, Books; and a small 'Gallery' with medium res. maps (under
Education and Information: 'Pictures' - Australian Hydrographic Society) {February, 2008}
Australia. 'South
Land to New Holland: Dutch Charting of Australia 1606-1756' (a collaborative exhibition
celebrating the Dutch discovery in 1606, comprising a series of linked, illustrated notes on
the discoveries, and a section on 'Dutch Mapping'; the 26 maps (featuring the world, East
Indies and Australia - from various Australian libraries) are enlargeable to very high res.
via Zoomify; they are also listed individually) {September, 2006}
+ Australia. 'Voyages of Grand
Discovery' (an online exhibition at the Maritime Museum of Western Australia, July-November 2007, focussing 'on some of the
great European voyages that helped to unravel the mysteries of the South Land or Terra Australis', illustrated with low res.
images) {September, 2007}
+ Australia
- Melbourne. 'Water Stories' (select 'A Garden City' for high res. images of Melbourne's
Victorian parks - an online exhibition from the Public Record Office of Victoria) {January,
2012}
Australia
- New South Wales. The Parish Map Preservation Project (a searchable database of over
35,000 high res., MrSID images of County, Municipal, Parish, and Town maps and the series
of (often earlier) Pastoral maps - New South Wales Department of Lands). See
also under Web Projects{July, 2002; updated March 2005 &
November 2006}
Australia - New
South Wales. Sydney & Parramatta. 'Highlights of the Map collections - Large scale maps series' (comprising
the following map series, enlargeable to high res. with Zoomify: Fire and Accident Underwriters
Association of NSW Detail survey maps: Block plan City of Sydney, 1919-1940; NSW Department of Lands Sydney
Metropolitan Detail survey series, 1883-1920; NSW Department of Lands Parramatta Detail survey series, 1895; NSW
Department of Lands Municipality maps series, Sydney Metropolitan Area, 1917-) {August, 2009}
Australia
- Queensland. 'Real estate maps' (an unspecified number of scans , though searching for
'maps' retrieved 181 items, '1850s to mid-1900s', predominantly from Brisbane, enlargeable to
medium res. - John Oxley Library, State Library of Queensland) {November, 2006; revised April 2017 with approximate URL}
Australia -
Sydney. 'Atlas of the Suburbs of Sydney' (actually an atlas of Sydney as a whole, apparently in 51 maps,
produced in faltering parts in the 1880s by Higinbotham, Robinson and Harrison; the high res. images can be
laid over the current Google map; commentary by Andrew Wilson for the Dictionary of Sydney; also available
as part of the online Historical
Atlas of Sydney) {July, 2012}
Australia
- Western Australia Records Office. 'Maps Online' (listing the series that have been
digitised (almost 1,400 sheets, from 1772 onwards, in high res., zoomable images) and
those due to be added in 2010 (almost 4,000); 'since 2002, the SRO has digitised over 8,000
maps and plans [;these] are now being made available through the internet') {February,
2010}
Marianas
Islands. 'Maps' (a selection, mostly from the late 19th/early 20th centuries; click to
enlarge to high res. - see also under 'Geography' - Dirk H.R. Spennemann) {November,
2005}
Marshall
Islands Historic Maps (a selection of late 19th century general and detailed maps,
enlargeable to high res. - Dirk H.R. Spennemann) {April, 2005}
New Guinea (text excerpts and enlargeable, slow-loading illustrations from George
Collingridge's The First Discovery of Australia and New Guinea(1906)) {March, 2005}
New Zealand (the Alexander Turnbull Library, the National Library
of New Zealand, Wellington, has 240 medium res. images relating to New Zealand [click on 'Search catalogues and databases']) {June, 2006}. [Alternatively, go to the Cartographic
Collections page and select the link 'See maps with digital copies...', for 443 medium res. images (mostly recent) {April, 2007} ]
New
Zealand. ‘Auckland Crown Grants’ (Charles Heaphy’s Plan of the town of Auckland,
1851, which includes names of original Crown Grant purchasers, arranged in 54 medium res.
sections - Auckland City Libraries) {April, 2005}
New Zealand. 'Early Mapping' (a series of illustrated essays and accompanying
material by Melanie Lovell-Smith, in Te Ara - the Encyclopedia of New Zealand ; the
images are also accessible via the Gallery, enlargeable to high res.;
see also the Biographies Gallery for links to the Dictionary of New Zealand
Biography, and Further Sources, which links to other relevant entries, or search
for 'maps') {September, 2007}
New Zealand. ‘Maps Online' (8384 scans, enlargeable to high res.
covering Auckland, as well as charts and maps from around New Zealand, from the earliest days of
colonization to the present - Auckland City Libraries) {April, 2005;
amended April 2009 & February 2018}
+ Pacific. 'Strait Through: Magellan to Cook & the Pacific' (a well-illustrated (very high
res.) online exhibition [shown to the public July 2010-January 2011), with sections on the Strait of
Magellan, Pacific Ocean, Spice Islands (Moluccas) and ten Explorers, covering the period 1520s to 1770s -
curated by John Delaney, Department of Rare Books and Special Collections, Princeton University Library)
{July, 2010}
Pacific (a Japanese-language site
offering maps (apparently enlargeable to high res., from the Japanese Imperial Army archives (though many
copied from European surveys), covering the region from Alaska to Australia, and from the Korean peninsula to
Pakistan (China, the Korean peninsula, Sakhalin and Taiwan are most thoroughly covered), dating from the 1880s to
the end of WWII; the collection is growing - Tohoku University) {July, 2009}