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Category: American History

Map of the foreign born population in the United Staes, 1880

Gannett and Hewes’ Visualizations of the 1880 Census

Posted by: Meagan Snow

The end of the 19th century saw a rise in the proliferation of data visualizations alongside traditional cartography and thematic mapping. A terrific example of this type of work is Scribner’s Statistical Atlas of the United States, which “shows by graphic methods [the states’] present condition and their political, social, and industrial development.” The atlas …

Screenshot of View from Above web map with clusters of maps shown on basemap of US.

New Interactive Map Showcases the Panoramic Maps Collection

Posted by: Tim St. Onge

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 …

Map of mainland Southeast Asia

Little Atlas, Big World

Posted by: Amelia Raines

In 1764, Le petit atlas maritime – “the little maritime atlas” – was published in Paris. Consisting of 5 volumes, each about 14 inches tall and containing 581 maps in total, Le petit atlas maritime is not particularly little. Its subject matter, in fact, is expansive: individual volumes are dedicated to maps of North America and the …

A map showing the nations of Indians to the Northwest of South Carolina, drawn in red with circles around each territory.

Native American Spaces: Cartographic Resources at the Library of Congress

Posted by: Julie Stoner

*The text for this blog post was adapted from the research guide created by former G&M reference specialist, Mike Klein, and from the essay by Jim Flatness, former G&M acquisitions specialist, found in the Library’s publication “Many nations : a Library of Congress resource guide for the study of Indian and Alaska Native Peoples of the …

Map showing the final route of the Northern Pacific

Mapping the Northern Pacific Railroad

Posted by: Meagan Snow

In mid-19th Century America, an expanding nation had a major transportation need: rail lines that could stretch from coast to coast. Western explorations and survey crews began to sketch out potential railroad routes in the decades before the American Civil War. Lloyd’s American railroad map of the US, seen below, shows three proposed rail routes: …

Detail of map of the southern portion of Michigan's lower peninsula, Ohio, and northeast Indiana, with counties labeled and colored. The region of the Toledo Strip forms the southern parts of Hillsdale, Lenawee, and Monroe Counties in Michigan.

If You Seek a Pleasant Peninsula, Forget Toledo

Posted by: Amelia Raines

When Ohio became a state in 1803, breaking off from the Northwest Territory, parts of the border remained ambiguous. Three decades later, this ambiguity led to a conflict between Ohioans and Michiganders which became known as the Toledo War. In the state’s enabling act, the northern boundary of Ohio was defined as “an east and …