Old Maps Online: Yet Another Cartographic Treasure-Trove

The internet search for old maps is vastly easier than it was in the past, thanks to such initiatives as the Old Maps Online Portal, a collaborative effort of The Great Britain Historical GIS Project based at The University of Portsmouth, UK and Klokan Technologies GmbH, Switzerland, with additional assistance from the Moravian Library of the Czech Republic and the David Rumsey map collection (more on the David Rumsey collection later). As the website notes, the easy-to-use portal “allows the user to search for online digital historical maps across numerous different collections via a geographical search. Search by typing a place-name or by clicking in the map window, and narrow by date. The search results provide a direct link to the map image on the website of the host institution.” The website also includes a blog.