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Category: 20th century cartography

Black and white photo of New York City, above the clouds.

1920s New York City from the Sky

Posted by: Julie Stoner

With the first liftoff of Orville and Wilbur Wright into the sky in 1903, the world dramatically changed in an instant, and it did not take long for the implications of flight to be applied to the world of cartography. The value of aerial mapping became readily apparent with the advent of World War I. …

1853 Pilot Chart showing wind speeds

From Telegrams to Weather Apps: A Brief History of Wind Mapping

Posted by: Meagan Snow

Today it’s easy to check the weather without even leaving the house: hourly predictions for rain, wind, temperature, and humidity are available to most of us through our phones at the touch of a button. Warnings for severe weather flash across our screens to help keep us safe – but how did we get here? …

Brown, red, and yellow tinted map illustration of the continents of Europe, Asia, Africa and Australia, with a circular frame around them

New Fire Insurance Map Research Guide Available

Posted by: Julie Stoner

The most heavily used collection in the Geography and Map Division are the Sanborn Fire Insurance Maps, a collection of large-scale, building level maps, dating from 1867 to the present which depict the commercial, industrial, and residential sections of some 12,000 cities and towns in the United States, Canada, and Mexico. The Sanborn collection includes about …

A red outline around the streets of San Francisco in the burned portion of the city. The buildings that have been rebuilt two years later are shown as black rectangles.

Shaken to the Core

Posted by: Sonia Kahn

At 5:12 a.m. on a typical Wednesday morning, most San Franciscans are probably sleeping. Perhaps they are just brewing their first cup of coffee, or gearing up for a jog. Maybe they are just stepping foot out the door on their way to work. Nothing out of the ordinary. But 115 years ago at 5:12 …

Brown, red, and yellow tinted map illustration of the continents of Europe, Asia, Africa and Australia, with a circular frame around them

Solving a Burning Question

Posted by: Julie Stoner

While browsing through our digital map collections, I came across a map that forced me to stop and take a closer look. Titled Fire chart of the Borough of Manhattan, N.Y…, it was published in 1915 and shows the number of reported fires in Manhattan, block by block, for the years 1910, 1911, and 1912. …

Karachi Tramways (Kurrachee) Province of Scinde, India, no date. Geography and Map Division, Library of Congress.

From Minor Village to World Metropolis: Karachi in Maps

Posted by: Ryan Moore

The former capital of Pakistan, Karachi is the most populous city in the country and the third most populous in the world. Before it was Karachi, the place was called Kolachi, a small village on the Arabian Sea. Kolachi was the surname of the founding fisher-woman, Lady Kolachi, according to local lore. The transformation from …