Maps

Contact

Contact information

mma17@psu.edu

814-865-0139

Maps Collections - Penn State

The Pennsylvania State University Libraries are home to over 400,000 maps.

The Donald W. Hamer Maps Library in 1 Central Pattee Library (basement) holds topographic maps in addition to many other kinds of maps such as nautical charts, tourist and road maps, atlases, gazetteers and more.

The Earth & Mineral Sciences Library holds some Pennsylvania Topographic maps as well as Geological maps.

Historical maps, from before 1900, are housed in the Special Collections Library on the first floor of the Paterno Library.

Search for Maps in the CAT

You can search for, and request maps across all locations with The CAT, the Libraries’ online catalog.
To begin searching: Use the ADVANCED search page
Use keywords that answer the questions:
- "What place do I want to see?"
- What type of material (format) am I looking for?"
- What type of map do I want? (topographic, tourist, etc.)

You can also limit your search by format type in the advanced search screen. In the drop-down menu for Material Type, select "Map" Note that doing this may eliminate some potentially useful resources, because you will be eliminating maps that are not in sheet map form, such as those in books.

Tip! When you have located a map using the CAT, be sure to write down the entire call number and its location. If the map is located at a campus or branch other than the one you normally visit, you may request that it be sent to your location by clicking on the blue "I Want It" button

Map Types

Aerial Photographs
High-altitude photographs of specific areas
Keyword(s): aerial photography, aerial views
Aeronautical Charts- charts used for air navigation
Keyword(s): aeronautical charts
Geologic Maps - maps showing rock and other formations that appear underground
Keyword(s): geology AND maps, place name To search for a specific location, search using the form "geology-place-maps," e.g. "geology — Pennsylvania — maps"
Nautical Charts - charts depicting various bodies of water, used for water navigation
Keyword(s): nautical charts
Satellite Images- photographs of specific areas taken from satellites; resemble high-altitude aerial photographs
Keyword(s): remote sensing, satellite meteorology
Topographic Maps- maps that illustrate the physical features of a location, including the area’s relief
Keyword(s): topographic AND maps, place name
To search for a specific location, search using the form "place - maps, topographic" e.g. "Pennsylvania — maps, topographic"
To search for a specific series of a particular scale, search by title using the form "[scale] series topographic [state]," e.g. "15 minute series topographic Pennsylvania"
Travel Maps- a wide variety of maps including road maps, city/town maps, hiking trails, and much more
Keyword(s): place name AND maps; cities and towns; maps, tourist;

Search for maps Online

Geological Maps

Preliminary Geologic Atlas of Pennsylvania
Maps are black & white at a scale of 1:62,500 and are listed by quadrangle name. If you don't know the name of the quadrangle, you can use this index to Pennsylvania quadrangle maps to determine the name or look it up using the GNIS (Geographic Names Information System).

A Geological Hand Atlas of the Sixty-Seven Counties of Pennsylvania
Digital Index Maps for some foreign countries are available to help you find the maps you are looking for. The Index maps point to paper maps mostly, but as we digitize more and more maps they will point to digital maps more frequently.

Topographic Maps

The Maps Library has links to numerous online topographic maps:

The USGS Store enables you to download the most recent quadrangles across the United States. Different scales are available.

Click on the Map Locator
Type in the city, state or address in the search
The location will appear with a red mark point
Click on the mark point - a balloon will appear with the options
Order or Download
The downloaded file of the quadrangle can be opened with Adobe Reader

Locating Maps using Georef Database

To find maps using GeoRef, it is best to use the keywords/anywhere selection from the drop-down menu and type in: [place] AND maps (example: Harrisburg AND maps). If you want to limit to a certain type of map you can include terms such as "geologic or topographic" More information on search techniques is available in the GeoRef help files.

Historic Maps - Serial Set Database

The libraries also have online access to the Serial Set Maps (1789-1969). The serial set contains House and Senate Documents and reports as well as Senate Executive Documents and Reports. The serial set maps are of historical significance, and were previously very difficult to access. The maps have been scanned at high resolution in both black & white and color.

There are two ways to access the maps in the Serial Set:

Check Serial Set Maps on the Advanced form, leaving the drop-down option at the "All fields except full text" default to search: (See the Help files in the database for comprehensive instructions)

"Check ‘Serial Set only’ (and not ‘Serial Set Maps’) to search the map captions in the main bibliographic record for the publication in which the map occurs. The map captions are a component of the illustration caption data. To limit the search to items with illustrations, use the checkbox provided as a Serial Set Only Option. To limit the search to illustration captions only, select "Illustration caption (Serial Set only)" from the search box drop-down list. Maps may be accessed in this way even though the user has not checked the Serial Set Maps option." (See the Help files in the database for more comprehensive instructions)

Advanced Search example: Alleghany River

Fire Insurance Maps

Fire insurance maps show the outlines of buildings along with their construction details (e.g., brick, wood, etc.). One of the most prolific publishers of fire insurance maps in the United States was the Sanborn Company. Find fire insurance maps in the catalog by browsing or searching for Insurance, Fire - [location] - Maps.

Digitized Fire Insurance Maps
State	Search Locations
All States	Search the Library of Congress' collection of state fire insurance maps
Alabama	Search by Alabama County courtesy of The University of Alabama Map Library
Arkansas	Fayetteville: Search through Fayetteville,Arkansas Index courtesy of the City of Fayetteville
California	City of San Francisco: Search through San Francisco Index courtesy of San Francisco Genealogy
Colorado	Search by Colorado County for 1883-1922 courtesy of University of Colorado at Boulder
Connecticut	Connecticul - Search through Index by way of Mystic Seaport courtesy of the G. W. Blunt Library
Delaware	New Castle 1885 & 1901 - Search Index courtesy of New Castle, Delaware Community History and Archaeology Program
Florida	Search by Year, City, or County - Florida courtesy of State Universities System of Florida Digital Library
Georgia	Search by Georgia City or County courtesy of The Digital Library of Georgia
Hawaii	Browse or Search Options - Hawaii courtesy of the University of Hawaii at Manoa Library
Illinois	Historic Maps of Aurora, Illinois courtesy of the Illinois Digital Archive Collection and Aurora Public Library
Indiana	Indianapolis, Indiana courtesy of The digital Collections of IUPUI University Library
Kentucky	Frankfort, Kentucky, Franklin County 1907 courtesy of The David Rumsey Collection OR Search by Kentucky County courtesy of Kentuckiana Digital Library
Maine	Hallowell, Kennebec County, Maine courtesy of The David Rumsey Map Collection
Massachusetts	Vineyard Haven, MA 1914 courtesy of The Historical Records of Tisbury, MA Boston, MA 1888 courtesy of Harvard University Cambridge, MA 1900 courtesy of Harvard University
Missouri	Search or Browse - Missouri the Collection Courtesy of the Digital Library of the University of Missouri
Nebraska	Town of Blair, Nebraska courtesy of Blair Historic Preservation Alliance Town of McCook, Nebraska courtesy of Southwest Nebraska Geological Society
Nevada	Search or Browse by City - Nevada Courtesy of Mary B. Ansari Map Library of the University of Nevada, Reno
New Jersey	Princeton : Search Index - Princeton, New Jersey then sheet You can also download an Excel Spreadsheet that enables access to other towns and cities in New Jersey. courtesy of Princeton University Library
New York	Blues Stadium, Brooklyn Atlases of New York City - Choose to “See all Images” then search Index to Sheet courtesy of the New York Public Library Digital Gallery Fleischmanns & Griffin’s Corners, NY Search by Year courtesy of Delaware County, NY Genealogy and History Site
North Carolina	Search by County - North Carolina Courtesy of University of North Carolina Libraries
Ohio	Cincinnati, Ohio - Search by Index then Page Reference courtesy of the Public Library of Cincinnati and Hamilton County
Oregon	Oregon City, Oregon – Search by Index then Sheet courtesy of the City of Oregon City
Pennsylvania	Various Pennsylvania Cities are available digitally courtesy of The Pennsylvania State University Libraries. Index for Pennsylvania maps available in the Maps Library.
South Carolina	South Carolina - search by City, Year, County, courtesy of The University of South Carolina Digital Library
Texas	Search Texas City courtesy of the Libraries at University of Texas at Austin
Utah	Utah - search by City or Browse courtesy of the J. Willard Marriott Library, The University of Utah
Virginia	Charlottesville, VA 1907, Charlottesville, VA 1920 Fredericksburg, VA, 1886, 1891, 1896, 1907, 1912

Online Atlases and Maps

Census Bureau Geography — Mapping from the U.S. Census.
CIA World Factbook — Provides political maps for countries around the world.
Earth View (satellite images) — Up to date satellite images of the earth
Google Maps
Historic USGS Topographic Maps — This site provides digital images of older editions of topographic maps to Northeastern U.S.
Library of Congress Map Collections — A selection from the Library of Congress's historic map collection.
MapQuest — An online interactive world atlas with trip planning and routing information.
Maptech MapServer — U. S. topography. Search by place name. Various scales provided.
NOAA Office of Coast Survey Historical Map and Chart Collection — Over 2,000 scanned images of historical maps and charts, including civil war battlefields, early explorations of the U.S. and world-wide coastlines.
Penn Pilot — Historical aerial photography of Pennsylvania from 1937 — date.
Pennsylvania Color Landform Atlas
Pennsylvania County Formation Maps — Shows changes in county boundaries over time.
Perry-Castañeda Library — A large collection of online maps for locations worldwide.
PSU Maps Library Online Maps list
Terrafly — By entering a U.S. address, an aerial photo is retrieved. U.S. Geological Survey satellite data are used for the aerial photo of your selected location.
TerraServer — This site, hosted by Microsoft, contains aerial photos and satellite images of locations worldwide.
Topozone — U.S. topography. Search by place name or latitude and longitude. Various scales provided.
United Nations Cartographic Section Web Site — Maps and geographic information resources.
Xpeditions Atlas — Printable maps from the National Geographic Society

Creating Maps Online

Envirofacts Maps — EPA's data mapping facility providing mapping applications that allow you to generate maps that display environmental information for the entire United States.
National Atlas of the United States - This site allows users to create maps illustrationg characteristics such as land use, population, and geology.
The 1970 National Atlas is available at the Library of Congress.
National Geographic Society's MapMachine — Contains both a dynamic map interface (choose a theme) and scanned images from National Geographics's Atlas of the World (allows you to zoom in and out).
National Map of the United States

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Geo-Data Resources

Geodata.gov — The Geospatial One-Stop for access to U.S. government spatial data.
NOAA Surveying & Mapping Products — The National Geophysical Data Center provides a variety of data sets for the U.S. and the world.
Pennyslvania digital data (USGS ftp site)
Pennsylvania Spatial Data Access Clearinghouse
U.S. GeoData — FTP access to digital cartographic data for the United States. Data sets include: 1:250,000 DEM, 1:24,000 DEM, 1:2,000,000 DLG, 1:100,000 DLG, 1:24,000 DLG, 1:250,000 LULC, and 1:100,000 LULC.

Other Resources

About.com's Geography Topic Site — Extensive list of links to geography-related resources.
Penn State University Libraries Map Library

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Map Citation

MLA-Style Citation Format:

(MLA Handbook, 6th ed., sections 5.8.8 and 5.9.9f)

Structure:

Title of map (underlined or italicized).
Descriptive label (e.g., Map, Graph, Photograph).
City of publication: Publisher, date of publication (if available).
Title of online collection (underlined or italicized).
Date of posting or most recent update of collection.
Name of project or reference database (underlined or italicized).
Name of sponsoring institution.
Date of access and electronic address.

Title of map. Descriptive label. City of publication: Publisher, date. Title of Online Collection. Date of posting. Database. Sponsoring institution. Day Month Year of access <electronic address>.

Example:
Map of the West Coast of Africa from Sierra Leone to Cape Palmas, including the Colony of Liberia. Map. Philadelphia: Finley, 1830. Map Collections 1500-2004. 3 May 2005. American Memory. Lib. of Congress. 1 Aug. 2005 <http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.gmd/g8882c.lm000002 >.

from the Library of Congress

Chicago

Structure:

Author’s last name, first name, middle initial (if given, or person responsible for content).
Title of document (in italics) [shorten to meaningful limits, ].
Format (map, chart).
Publisher city: publishing company, copyright date.
Source (From Library of Congress in normal font), Collection name with dates (in italics).
Medium (software requirement needed to access source).
URL (use bibliographic record URL or shorter digital id if available at bottom of bib record).
Accessed date (in parenthesis).

Last name, First name Middle initial. Title of Work. Format. City: Publishing Company, copyright date. Source, Collection. Medium, http://...(accessed date).

Example:
Ashmun, Jehudi. Map of the West Coast of Africa from Sierra Leone to Cape Palmas, including the Colony of Liberia. Map. Philadelphia: A. Finley, 1830. From Library of Congress, Map Collections. http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.gmd/g8882c.lm000002 (accessed January 9, 2006).

from the Library of Congress

Additional Citation References