map news

A zoom in on the troop positions to show them in greater detail. The names of regiments and divisions, as well as the names of their commanding officers can be seen, and descriptions of fortifications such as trenches and gun emplacements

Map of the Month: November 2023

In 1898, Cuba was in the midst of a bloody war for independence from Spain that had been raging for three years. American public opinion swayed dramatically towards support through the 1890s, especially with American journalists fully embracing Yellow Journalism to exaggerate and embellish the atroc...

The Roosevelt Dam drawn in Blue on a 1934 Map by T.A. Hayden

Map of the Month: October 2023

Salt River Valley, Arizona, 1934. Cartography by T.A. Hayden. In 1934, the Phoenix valley was mostly farmland thanks to the incredibly successful damming of the Salt River with the Roosevelt Dam via the Salt River Project i...

A selection from a topographic map showing contours for elevation within the Grand Canyon

Map of the Month: September 2023

The Grand Canyon is one of the modern natural wonders of the world. It’s been mapped countless times over the years, and is the second most visited national park in the United States. However, the mapping history of the Grand Canyon is relatively young; the first USGS quadrangle maps of the Canyon w...

Historic map of Africa north of the equator from the 1919 “Map of Africa to Illustrate the Progress of Surveys and Explorations”. Regions are colored red or blue to denote different topographic surveys with several unshaded regions representing areas of the Sahara and Kalahari Desert which were unsurveyed. Small black text labels towns or cities, while large bold text denotes location names. Surrounding Africa is the Mediterranean Sea, the Red Sea, and the South Atlantic Ocean.

Map of the Month: November 2022

Our November Map of the Month is this 1919 British War Office map titled “Map of Africa to Illustrate the Progress of Surveys and Explorations”. Originally published in 1914 and updated in this edition, it depicts the entirety of the African continent with data on the topographic surveys that had be...

Port Arthur and Gulf of Korea magnified to show border denoting Russian presence

Map of the Month: October 2022

Our October Map of the Month is this undated Spanish map titled “Corea y Sur de Mandchuria” (Korea and South Manchuria). It depicts the Korean Peninsula and Southern Manchuria just prior to the start of the Russo-Japanese War, before Japanese occupation and the Division of Korea. It includes various...

Magnification of the map inset showing the borders of Central American states. In the map, Honduras, Verapaz, Chiapas, Guatemala, and Nicaragua are depicted with boundaries which have drastically evolved since 1846. Boundaries are represented by a dotted or dashed line. Solid lines in the interior of the peninsula reflect major drainages. Concentric lines surrounding the peninsula reflect the elevational descent into the Gulf of Mexico.

Map of the Month: July 2022

Our July Map of the Month is this 1848 “Mexico & Guatemala” map published just before the end of the Mexican-American War by S. Augustus Mitchell. It features a detailed depiction of the various international and state boundaries of Mexico and Central America at the time, many of which were alte...

A 5x5 rectangular grid over southwest Germany, showing the extent of the new map collection.

New Map Collection and Index: Southwest Germany to the Alps

The index for our new map series index, Southwest Germany to the Alps, is now available to the public in this interactive web map. The Southwest Germany to the Alps map series index is an interactive web map that displays the topographic features and municipalities of ...

 Map depicting the Mesopotamian Theater of World War I including cities, topography, and existing borders

Map of the Month: January 2022

Our January Map of the Month is this 1916 map of “The Theatre of War in Mesopotamia”, displaying Mesopotamia (modern-day Iraq and Syria) and Persia (modern-day Iran) as they appeared in the midst of World War I. This map was published in Edward Stanford’s War Map No. 9  and includes an inset of “The...

Historic map depicting Northern Mexico, Baja California, and parts of Arizona, New Mexico, Texas, and Louisiana Territory

Map of the Month: December 2021

Our December Map of the Month is this French map titled “New Mexico, with the Northern Part of Old, Or New Spain”. Among the oldest maps in our collection, this map was made by Rigobert Bonne and was published in 1780 as part of Guillaume-Thomas Raynal’s famous Atlas de Toutes Les Parties Connues du...