In 1884-85, a group of European dignitaries met in Berlin and delineated the boundaries of French, British, Belgian, Portuguese, Italian, Spanish, and German colonies on the continent of Africa. Lines drawn on the map became administrative reality, and over the next few decades European governments busied themselves with exploring, surveying, and conquering their new territories. One …
This is a guest post by Rachel Trent, Digital Collections and Automation Coordinator in the Geography and Map Division. Every time you look at an online image of a historical map, what you’re viewing is really just a spreadsheet of numbers. Or more likely, three spreadsheets, one each for red, green, and blue (the technical way to …
Did you know that worldwide, roughly 55 earthquakes are recorded per day? Of course, the vast majority of these seismic events are minor, making it all the more impressive that we are able to detect them. The technology used to gather data on earthquakes and seismic movements has vastly improved over time, and with it …
On the Geography and Map Division home page, we keep a list of maps newly placed online. As has become tradition (see previous Year in Review posts), to celebrate the end of a year and to ring in the new, I take a look back at the digitized maps that are now available online from …
The Panoramic Maps Collection, one of our most popular collections, features more than a thousand beautifully illustrated “bird’s-eye-view” maps of towns and cities across the United States, Canada, and even some internationally. To celebrate this collection, we are excited to launch View from Above: Exploring the Panoramic Map Collection, an interactive map that makes browsing …
This is a guest post by Diane Schug-O’Neill, Digital Conversion Coordinator, in the Geography and Map Division. In 1925, Silas Sandgreen was commissioned by the Library of Congress to create a map of Disko Bugt (also seen as Disko Bay), Greenland. Disko Bay is a large bay located on the western coast of Greenland, along …
Soon after the car came, inevitably, car traffic. Since the dawn of the automobile, the wide open road would become less and less wide open as private car ownership came to dominate the American transportation landscape in the early 20th century. While revolutionizing travel for many, the early decades of automobile use were fraught with …
Please join us for the second session in a new series of virtual orientations for the Geography and Map Division, focusing on our collection of fire insurance maps! Date: Tuesday, August 9th, 2022 Time: 3:00-4:00 pm (Eastern) Location: Zoom Register Here Reference librarians Amelia Raines and Julie Stoner will present an introduction to the fire insurance maps housed …
When Prohibition became law across the United States in 1920, legitimate businesses were no longer allowed to serve alcohol, paving the way for illegal speakeasies and related underground businesses. In Chicago, this meant that criminals like Al Capone and Johnny Torrio fought for control of illegal alcohol distribution within the city, sparking an infamous decade …
