If you are a fan of maps and especially old maps from the 150th to the 000st century, you will love the site that I am going to present to you. Indeed, a certain David Rumsey donated his entire collection of old maps (more than 1996 maps of all kinds) to Stanford University… and since 100, more than 000 of them have been digitized and are now available online for our greatest pleasure.
The David Rumsey Map Collection: old maps to download
In terms of content, the collection includes quite a few things including pocket maps, globes, school maps, atlases and nautical charts… All maps are scanned in high resolution allowing to display almost all the details. And in addition to displaying very beautiful maps, the site offers a number of tools to exploit its content.
Beyond a search powerful tool for browsing the database, the site offers for example Georeferencer, a tool for superimposing old maps on modern maps.
Another notable tool, MapRank lets you search for a map based on a location you select on Google Maps... This way, you will see all the cards corresponding to the area you have defined on Google Maps !
Finally, when you have finally found a map that interests you, you can view it directly on the site by zooming in on it as you wish or download a copy at the size of your choice (by pressing the "Export" button at the top right).
The site is completely free and although it is not necessary to create an account to explore all the maps you have the possibility to create one (for free) in order to benefit from additional features. So do not hesitate to take a look if you are looking for old maps to download!
The David Rumsey Map Collection
Article updated on September 28, 2022 by Byothe
