Blog Posts by Subject: Maps, Atlases, Cartography

Virtual travel and time travel are at your fingertips with the remote resources of the Map Division.

Resources to assist researchers and casual users find the places they are looking for.

Using the New York Public Library's Map Warper, map lovers and history buffs can find old maps by their location, and align them with present-day locations.

Did you know the Library is home to 433,000 sheet maps, and 20,000 books and atlases published between the 16th and 21st centuries? In the first of this five-part series, we review the various ways genealogists can use these maps in their research.

Born of necessity, fire insurance maps can be used with other sources to create family histories with color and context. Find out more in this second part of our five-part series of genealogy research.

Determining an ancestor's place of origin, and how they arrived in the U.S., is one of the engaging aspects of genealogy research. In this 3rd part of our five-part series, see the role that maps play in that research and follow the story of one immigrant family from Northern Italy to Iron Belt, Wisconsin.

Discover how topography can help inform your research, creating a powerful narrative that can bring the past to life. Part 4 of our five-part series.

We wrap up our five-part series with a look at the importance of gazetteers in your genealogical search, and a summary detailing how to find the maps at NYPL.

Witness the city's expansion as real estate companies promoted lot auctions north of the historical boundary of Canal Street.

Take a peek into the geographic past... Discover the best ways to use the catalog, and examples of what you can expect to find.

Interested in learning more about New York's role, and the early battles of the American Revolution? Inspired by Hamilton?

Taking inspiration from the delightful National Cookie Day post, the Map Division is using Pi(e) Day as cause to celebrate not only our love for pie (the eating kind), but also, the wonderful variety of pictorial maps in the collections of the Lionel Pincus and Princess Firyal Map Division.

The collections of the Map Division of The New York Public Library contain a rare gem of information graphics and cartographic design: a copy of Charles Minard's self-published folio of 1861, Des tableaux graphiques et des cartes figuratives.

The mission of my Short-Term Fellowship was to research the development of thematic map technique in the West: the way that proportional circle, flow line, isopleth, choropleth, dasymetric, dot density, and cartogram techniques were invented and developed in Europe and the United States during the nineteenth century.

Our collection of New York City maps spans a large swath of time, tracking the growth of the city from its early days as a small North Atlantic Dutch colony to its modern incarnation as one of the capitals of the globalized world.

Spring has sprung and new maps have been added to the NYPL Map Warper. No joke!

The New York Public Library received a generous grant from the Samuel H. Kress Foundation to scan the globe using 3D imaging technology. The project was undertaken in conjunction with the Lazarus Project, an organization that provides historical researchers access to advanced imaging technology.

Did you know that out of 180,000 public domain images, over 2,000 are from the Bronx? This post will highlight some the treasures from this incredible gold mine of historic images that are now free to use.

The Library's collection includes a diverse range of cartographic material including well-known topographic surveys depicting the landscape before the park’s construction as well as numerous maps published after its completion with indexes that list amenities and places of interest.