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, National Library of Australia
(8,856 'items' [=maps?], consisting of 16,775 high res. images [at June 2009], mostly from the Ferguson, Nan Kivell and Tooley
collections, as well as the Doncker atlas (1659). These can be accessed either via the Digital Collections page (select ‘Maps’ and then
use the ‘Search Maps’ box to find digitised maps only), or via the catalogue (with ‘Limit to’ set to ‘Maps’), which will find all maps, most not yet digitised)
{December, 2002; revised March 2007 & September 2009}
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. 'Explore Australian
collections and worldwide online sources: Maps' ('SBDS Prototye'; a search for 'map',and 'available
online only' produced about 50,000 hits (restricting to 'Australian content only' brought up about
15,000), a number with thumbnails enlargeable to very high res.- National Library of Australia)
{May, 2009}
Australia.
'Early Australian Maps' (a few sample, low res. images of maps of
the world, Australia and elsewhere - State Library of Queensland, Brisbane)
Australia. 'Map and Plan
Collection Online' (a small but presumably 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, 2007}
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 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 here) {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
- 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
- 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}
Australia
- Victoria (and Melbourne) (high res. images (22 of Victoria,
50 of Melbourne), with the ability
to zoom, enlarge and select details - Map Collection, University of
Melbourne)
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. Matapihi (an image gateway site; a search for 'maps' picked up
numerous scans (which are shown as thumbnails) from a range of online collections (whose
holdings can be separately searched); presumably some of the images linked to are in high
res.); the total appears to be around 2,700, though not all are maps and a number
are current; bilingual English/Maori) {March, 2010}
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, and individually via Images & Media, 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' (over 1000 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) . [Also here] {April, 2005;
amended April 2009}
+ 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}