25,000 maps worldwide available for download
The Perry-Castañeda Library Map Collection is an impressive collection containing more than 250,000 maps that have been scanned and made available online. Most of these maps are in the public domain and about 25,000 are currently available.
As an example, we show some of the maps available in the Collection.
This is the 1: 50,000 Cartographic Sheet of Girona, from the first edition of 1943, when this was done by the United States Army for alleged security reasons :). Maps of this type are found in almost all countries, available for download.
See this example of the Navigation Chart 1: 1,000.000 over Lima, Peru. All maps in this collection are available with a high level of detail as seen in the following image.
It is interesting also the maps of wars; The example shows an approach from the 29 Offensive from September to the 14 of October in Verdun during World War I in 1918.
This is England and Wales between 1649 and 1910. The collection of historical maps is very extensive, from different continents.
The way the maps are organized takes some effort because there is no catalog of metadata, but in general it is possible once you enter the area of interest, which is arranged as follows:
- Maps of The World
- Maps of Africa
- Maps of The Americas Including United States, Canada and Mexico
- Maps of Asia
- Maps of Australia and the Pacific
- Maps of Europe
- Maps of The Middle East
- Maps of Polar Regions and Oceans
- Maps of Russia and the Former Soviet Republics
- Maps of The United States Including National Parks and Monuments
- Maps of Texas
- Maps of Texas Counties
- Maps of Austin
I suggest keeping the address of the Library page, as it is an interesting source of information, which is gradually being scanned and uploaded for free use.
http://www.lib.utexas.edu/maps/
The Perry-Castañeda Library is located on the University of Texas Campus, currently the fifth largest library at the academic institutions level; The eleventh in the United States.
Very good stuff, thanks for sharing.