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
Africa. ‘Afriterra Maps Catalog’ (a
listing of over 5,000 maps, leading to over 1,000 very high res. Zoomify images, searchable by date, region
of Africa, keyword, creator, etc.- Afriterra: the Cartographic Free Library. See also the entry under Web Projects) {September, 2001; updated November 2009; update June 2020, there is only a skeleton site}
Africa
(a selection of high res. images of maps of Africa,
16th-19th centuries, arranged chronologically - University of Florida, George A. Smathers
Libraries, Map & Imagery Library) {December, 2003}
Africa
(17 very high res. images via Zoomify, 1845-1923 - Michigan State University)
{April, 2001; amended September 2007}
Africa (clicking on one of the
map thumbnails brings up a page with small, low res. images of six early
maps of Africa - South African Government) {November, 2002}
Africa.
'The Atlantic slave trade and slave life in the Americas' (select 'Maps: Africa, New World,
Slave Trade' for 30 images, enlargeable to medium res., mostly of original maps or details
focussing on western Africa, with bibliographical commentary - Jerome S. Handler and Michael L.
Tuite Jr., the Virginia Foundation for the Humanities and the Digital Media Lab at the
University of Virginia Library) {August, 2005}
Africa. CartoMundi – Online Promotion of the Cartographic Heritage.
Digital Map Library (70,000 catalogue entries and 6,500 images, mostly relating to the Mediterranean and Balkans and
from the late 19th or 20th centuries - a collaborative site involving about 20 map libraries - Maison méditerranéenne des
sciences de l’homme – Aix-en-Provence). For a full geographical list (October 2017) see Here. {July, 2014}
Africa. 'The collection of ancient maps' (20 maps of
Africa as a whole or the central region, enlargeable to high res. with Zoomify - Royal Museum
for Central Africa, Tervuren) {September, 2010}
Africa.
Early African Cartography (33 enlargeable, high res. maps,
1562-1940 - American Museum of Natural History, using maps (with
permission) from the New York Public Library and the British Library)
{November, 2002}
Africa. Hemispheres Antique Maps & Prints (unusually, this dealer site offers images
enlargeable to high res., with special reference to Africa on which the proprietors, Richard and Penelope Betz, have
produced the standard book, The Mapping of Africa: A Cartobibliography of Printed Maps of the African Continent to 1700{July, 2007}
'Africa
Historical Maps' (41 [original not 'historical'] maps, enlargeable to high res. via
LizardTech ExpressView Plugin - Yale University Library) {November, 2007}
'Africa Map' (a provisional
version of a GIS program which will offer 10 earlier maps (from 1612) as an alternative layer;
"AfricaMap is based on the Harvard University Geospatial Infrastructure (HUG) platform, and was
developed by the Center for Geographic Analysis to make spatial data on Africa easier for
researchers to discover and explore") {March, 2010}
Africa. 'Maps of Africa'
(download Luna Insight for 623 high res. images, 15th-20th century, from the collections of Dr Oscar I. Norwich (312 maps) and Caroline Batchelor (179 maps) - Stanford University Libraries).
[This also forms part of the multi-collection Visual
Collections site - select ‘Cartography’, and see also here] {January, 2004; revised February 2012 & January 2015}
+ Africa. Prester
John.‘The Story of Prester John’ (‘Discover how Europeans made sense of the diverse world around them in the age
of European expansion just prior to the colonial era’ – a small virtual exhibition from the Harvard Map Collection, up
to 25 June 2022) {December, 2020}
Africa
south of the Sahara. Topics: Maps (a useful list of links, often itemising the Africa
content of general sites, with a link to an overlapping site for South
Africa - Karen Fung, Stanford University Libraries) {November, 2002}
African
American Odyssey (a few maps relating to West Africa and the US -
select 'Object Checklist', then search for map - Library of
Congress - high res. MrSID images, with the ability to zoom,
enlarge and select details)
British East Africa. 'The British Library Publishes War Office Archive Maps Online' (over
550 MS maps & sketches, enlargeable to high res., relating to modern-day Kenya, Uganda and adjacent
parts of Tanzania, Burundi, Rwanda, DR Congo, South Sudan, Ethiopia and Somalia, 1890-1940 - follow the link to the
'Collection Guide') {November, 2015}
British East Africa. ‘War Office Archive maps’ (‘the British Library has digitised over 1600 military
intelligence maps and documents from the War Office Archive. These relate to East Africa, particularly modern-day
Ethiopia, Kenya, Malawi, Mozambique, Somaliland, Tanzania and Uganda’). See also, 'Adding 1,277 East African maps to Georeferencer',
Nick Dykes for the British Library Maps blog, 14 July 2021) {March, 2018; updated 2021}
Canaries. ‘Cartoteca
Virtual: Islas Canarias’ (search for an island, or a specific feature, and then, separately, for 'Digital'
or 'Paper', to retrieve descriptions and images of maps from various collections, zoomable to fairly high
res.; there are also texts, online essays and a general bibliography (including some further online
articles) - part of an EU-funded GIS project from Grupo Mercator, Universidad Politécnica de Madrid) {July,
2007}
Central Africa. Cartesius. ‘Maps,
plans, sketches and aerial imagery’ (a selection, enlargeable to high res., covering Belgium and
Central Africa online – a cooperation between the National Geographic Institute, the Royal Library, the
State Archives and the Royal Museum for Central Africa) {December, 2016}
Egypt. 'Cartes et plans anciens' (a selection of low to medium res. 19th &
20th century town plans, mostly of Alexandria and Cairo) {January, 2006}
Egypt. ‘Historic Maps
Digital Collection’ (209 maps, enlargeable to high res. covering ‘Egypt, with a focus on Cairo and its
development during the late 19th and early 20th centuries’- The American University in Cairo) {November, 2020}
North Africa.
'Cartes marines anciennes' (select the section 'Méditerranée - Afrique' for eleven maps and
charts, viewable in high res. via the 'Taille' link [most of the enlargement options
beneath the thumbnail do not work]; see also 'Cartes anciennes diverses'
- reproduced under licence from the Bibliothèque nationale de France (Gallica) by Jacques Zan)
{November, 2005}
South Africa, Series Z501, 1:250,000, U.S. Army Map
Service, 1954- (includes all or part of Basutoland, Rhodesia and Nyasaland, South Africa, South West Africa, Swaziland,
Republic of the Congo; high res. (though slow-loading) images, covering 24 cities - University of Texas Libraries) {May, 2007}
West Africa, Series N504, 1:250,000, U.S. Army Map
Service, 1955- (includes all or part of Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Ivory Coast,
Liberia, Mali, Mauritania, Nigeria, Senegal, Sierra Leone and Upper Volta; high res. (though slow-loading) images -
University of Texas Libraries) {May, 2007}
Islamic mapping, see under that heading in the Images and Text sections