Matthew H. Edney
Basic Websites for High-Resolution Imagery Concerning U.S. and New England Cartographies
The following is not a comprehensive list, by any stretch of the imagination: just the websites to which I go first to find map imagery.
Note: instructions for downloading freeware with which to view images stored in MrSid format (MrSid viewer) or JPEG2000 format (ER Viewer) can be found on the Library of Congress website. Please note that ER Viewer can also be used to view images in TIFF and regular JPEG formats.
maphistory.info maintains a large and exhaustive list of websites with accessible, high-resolution imagery. Students should explore this carefully and at length! The list of sites focusing on U.S. maps is substantial.
For U.S. maps, the 'big two' sites, worth exploring repeatedly, are:
Library of Congress, Geography and Map Division, "Map Collections, 1500-1999." Part of the library's American Memory Network, it has over 12,000 images. These can be viewed with the LC's rather primitive viewer, or downloaded for easier examination.
David Rumsey Cartographic Collections. Emphasizing nineteenth-century U.S. map making, this huge collection of 18,500+ images can be easily viewed in a complex online browser.
Other relevant sites are:
Historic Map Works, a company based in Westbrook, Maine, has digitized many thousands of nineteenth- and twentieth-century land ownership atlases and wall maps. It has also begun the process of digitizing the Osher Map Library's collections.
Harvard University Map Library's Digital Collections, has a lot of interesting maps relevant to US and New England.
The John Carter Brown Library, Brown University, is steadily building up its "Archive of Early American Images." Note that the JCB focuses on the history of the Americas before ca.1825, and that its holdings include a phenomenal map collection.
University of New Hampshire Library's Government Information Department has a collection of "Historic USGS Maps of New England & NY." These cover the period from 1884 to the 1950s, generally with several editions for each quadrangle.
The Maine Memory Network includes many maps of Maine history, including an exhibition of the maps of the Plymouth Company (Kennebec Proprietors).
Should anyone come across other, similar websites, please let me know!