This post includes images of various types of wine maps that were published during the 19th and early 20th centuries. A brief history of viticulture is also provided.
Explore a new search interface for the Sanborn map collection, launched in conjunction with an updated version of the Geography and Map Reading Room website.
Drastic climatic change via drought conditions was a major factor prompting residents of the Great Plains, many of them farmers, westward to California in one of the largest migrations in U.S. history.
1960 was a dramatic year for Africa, in which 17 countries gained their independence from colonial powers. This post charts the events of that watershed year through a series of political maps produced by the CIA.
A picture of a skull and crossbones marks the location of a special collection in the Geography and Map Division. The collection consists of wreck charts published by U.S. federal government agencies, treasure maps made by famous cartographers during the 18th and 19th centuries, and treasure maps published by commercial companies during the mid -20th …
This is a guest post by Geography and Map Division summer intern, Wayne Hastings, who worked on processing and housing the John Parr Snyder Collection. Imagine this. During the summer of 1972, the United States was in the midst of one of the most wildly impressive eras of technological and scientific development – the Space …
This blog posts provides an introduction to some early maps produced from images captured by ERTS-1 (later known as Landsat I), the world's first earth-observing satellite.
In 1899, British geologist Henry G. Lyons (1864–1944) began a systematic reassessment of the cadastral surveys conducted in Egypt under Ottoman Turkish rule. His updated survey was built upon 90 years of work—starting in 1813 when Muʿallim Ghali, a finance minister appointed by Muhammad ʿAli Basha (1769–1849), reorganized the finances of Egypt to optimize taxation. …