Top of page
Posted by: Julie Stoner
This is a guest post by Kelly Bilz, Librarian-in-Residence in the Geography and Map Division. Beneath the surface of west-central Kentucky winds a complex system of rivers and grottos known as Mammoth Cave. Named “mammoth” for its size, the cave doesn’t have much to do with the creature—although mammoths and mastodons did live in Kentucky near Big …
Posted in: Exploration, Guest Posts, National Parks
Posted by: Ed Redmond
One of the joys involved in answering reference questions submitted to the Geography and Map Division is that some questions (the fun ones!) frequently involve extensive research in the Library’s cartographic holdings. Staff of the Geography and Map Division are also fortunate to be able to consult photocopies of maps from other institutions, early photographs …
Posted in: 17th century cartography
Posted by: Julie Stoner
This is a guest post by Kelly Bilz, Librarian-in-Residence in the Geography and Map Division. If you’re buying a souvenir map, would you rather it be “historical,” or “hysterical”? The Lindgren Brothers aimed for the latter in their set of maps of American landmarks. With their distinct style—a yellow background, a blue (or sometimes red) border, and …
Posted in: Guest Posts
Posted by: Cynthia Smith
European colonists were fascinated with the wildlife of the Western Hemisphere. They described fauna native to the Americas in memoirs, travel journals and poetry. Pictures of the unfamiliar animals were often printed on maps. In this post I will discuss four colonial era maps that were decorated with illustrations of animals. The two maps of …
Posted in: 17th century cartography, 18th century cartography, American History
Posted by: Ryan Moore
To visit Arlington National Cemetery is to know these United States more deeply. It is a place of remembrance and a microcosm of American history. Beneath the shade of firs, maples, oaks and many other trees, the necropolis gently sprawls across 624 acres. The site is in Arlington, Virginia, just across the Potomac River from …
Posted in: American History, Military History
Posted by: Tim St. Onge
The following post is by Kim Edwin, a library technician in the Geography and Map Division. Since coming to the Washington, D.C. area and joining the Geography and Map Division, I have enjoyed learning about the early history of our nation’s capital through maps and place names. In studying maps from the city’s early years …
Posted in: Borders, City Histories
Posted by: Julie Stoner
Every month on our home page, we provide a monthly list of maps that have been scanned and added to the online collections of the Geography and Map Division. To celebrate the end of the year and to ring in the new, I took a look back at the lists of maps that have been …
Posted in: Exploring the Early Americas, Geography and Map Division, Series: A Year in Review
Posted by: Tim St. Onge
In honor of Women’s History Month this March, Worlds Revealed is featuring weekly posts about the history of women in geography and cartography. You can click on the “Women’s History Month” category see all related posts. Many of the greatest maps in cartographic history have been borne out of expeditions and adventures into regions not …
Posted in: 19th century cartography, Biography, Women's History
Posted by: Carlyn Osborn
Today’s guest post is by Anthony Páez Mullan, a cartographic reference specialist in the Geography and Map Division at the Library of Congress. He specializes in the historical cartography of Latin America, the Caribbean, and the Iberian Peninsula and is a co-author of the “Luso-Hispanic World in Maps.” The Library of Congress recently acquired an important …
Posted in: Borders, Exploration, Exploring the Early Americas, Guest Posts, Hispanic American History, Manuscripts