Because I believe strongly that well-educated human beings in the modern world should know something about the physical world we inhabit, and should also know where things happened in the past, I've collected the following links to help my students locate places we discuss in class. I'm also quite fond of historical maps and cartography, because the images themselves are often works of art, so I've included links to these as well--indicated by a globe. The bottom portions of the list concern other kinds of mapping and maps used for non-traditional purposes.
theory l places l general sites/links pages l other kinds of mapping l literary and imaginary maps
Theory: "Map views" are not necessarily easy for human beings to conjure up. In order to understand how we come to make maps and see the world from different perspectives, see this terrific page: Milestones in the History of Thematic Cartography, Statistical Graphics, and Data Visualization, also available in PDF with active links.
New: Google Earth, the single most convincing answer I can think of to the question, "why bother with the internet at all?" And that's in addition to Google Maps.
Even newer: ArchAtlas. This is a brand-spanking new project (well; I just discovered it) that aims to use new satellite mapping technologies to understand how and why people ended up where they did. This is just terrific!
Ancient World Mapping Center An interdisciplinary research center at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. It includes a page with several high-quality free maps.
David Smith's Mapping.com, the purpose of which is to provide "extensive resources for educators, students, and anyone interested in expanding their geographic horizons." The site offers several intereting approaches to thinking about geographical space.
Ancient Near East and Egypt:
The Oriental Institute (University of Chicago) Map Series
Internet Medieval Sourcebook: Maps and Images (especially for maps dealing with the rise and spread of Islam, and the routes of the Crusaders)
Old maps of Egypt from Gavin's Egyptomania page (click on "antique maps")
The Modern Middle East (Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan, Israel, Jordan, Syria, the Arabian Peninsula)
MidEast Web Maps offers a clickable map to areas in the modern Middle East, including Egypt and Turkey. It also provides a few historical maps of the area.
The Mediterranean World (including Crete, Greece, Turkey, and Rome)
Interactive Ancient Mediterranean Index This comprehensive site provides outline maps, terrain maps, and place-name maps from ancient regions bordering the Mediterranean Sea.
New: Ancient Greece.Org has some nice maps in Flash format that allows for zooming and moving, and different time sequences on the same map: Ancient Greece, Ancient Crete, Bronze Age Aegean, Mycenaean Greece.
The Beginnings of Historic Greece 700-600 B. C. (University of Texas)
Both of the above are from Maps of Greece from the Perry-Castañeda Library Map Collection
Map of Renaissance Italy (Fordham University)
The route of Alexander the Great (from Hyperhistory)
Europe
Outline map of Europe (this is from Enchanted Learning--see bottom of page.)
Internet Medieval Sourcebook: Maps and Images These maps cover a large area--roughly any place of importance during the Middle Ages; most maps are adapted from Muir's Historical Atlas of 1911.
Ireland's History In Maps: A comprehensive site with maps from the Pleistocene to the 19th Century, as well as links to historical and literary (myth) sources.
Maps of Ireland and Northern Ireland: A very extensive list of maps covering every square inch of Ireland and every moment in time since the formation of the planets (or so it seems). From the CAIN (Conflict Archive on the Internet) Web Service.
The Stone Map: a clickable map of ancient monuments in Ireland.
The North Atlantic
The Vinland Map--a page to help you decide whether or not the map is a fake, but with additional useful information. Here's an article from BBC on current scientific discussions about the map: Scientists Disagree Over Viking Map. Here's the Canadian position (well, CBC's), and a PBS Nova site (The Viking Deception), if you need more information or another perspective. Another page from BBC provides a map that shows where the Vikings came from and where they settled in England.
Sedimentation, Tectonics, and Paleogeography of the North Atlantic Region These maps cover the geological history of the North Atlantic region from the Early Cambrian to the Miocene. They're from a great page by Dr. Ron Blakey at Arizona State, Regional Paleogeographic Views of Earth History from which you can locate evidence that I'm not exaggerating when I talk about North Africa's "slamming" into southern Europe at a rapid clip.
South Asia (the Indian subcontinent)
Maps of India A links page of all sorts of maps; this link is to the history section
History of India in Maps This and the above link seem to be related, but I'm not sure how.
Maps of South Asia: An Organized Collection (Prof. Frances Pritchett, Columbia University): includes both historical maps and contemporary, as well as specialized maps--such as relief and terrain maps, and ethnic groups, etc. This is an unbelievably complete and thorough site.
East Asia (including Southeast Asia)
Chinese Cultural Studies: Images: Maps (City University of New York)
Medieval Japan and Korea (6th to 19th centuries); this is a bit skimpy, but provides place names and a good clean map. From Frank Smitha's World History maps.
Qin Dynasty and Its Conquests (Frank Smitha)
The Rise of Ancient China (also from Frank Smitha--see World History maps, below)
Australasia
Perry-Castañeda Library Map Collection: Maps of Australia and the Pacific
Just to see if any of you are paying attention, here's the National Public Toilet map of Australia.
Pacific Islands
Map South Pacific includes clear, easily navigable maps of Polynesia, Micronesia, and Melanesia
Geographic Guide's relief map of Oceania (including Australia and New Zealand)
The Americas
North America
Geographic Information Systems (GIS) maps of Native Lands, Current Places, and History with links to state-by-state maps, satellite images, land form maps, etc.
BUBL page on North American History (University of Strathclyde, Scotland): an excellent library-oriented site with many good map links (some historical).
Lewis and Clark: Mapping the West is a nicely designed page from the Smithsonian, with segments on the expedition, the process of mapping and of cartography in general, and what was learned.
Central America
South America
Latin American Network Information Center (Lanic) regional maps: links to individual countries as well as the continents. At the bottom of the page are more general links from international sources.
General Sites and/or Links Pages
Outline maps from Enchanted Learning (don't be put off by the fact that this site is geared toward elementary school teachers; outline maps are outline maps).
World History maps from Frank Smitha. This is a very comprehensive site that provides straightforward, well-designed, informative maps from ancient times to the present, often within a narrative context (click on place names for maps).
Cartographic Images: a page of links to historical maps from a variety of sources--some superb. Time spans include ancient to medieval, and there are additional links to history of cartography sites. Mercator's World magazine (one of my favorites; unfortunately now defunct) liked this site.
National Geographic Map Machine This site is great, and their blurb is true: "Find nearly any place on Earth, and view it by population, climate, and much more. Plus, browse antique maps, find country facts, or plan your next outdoor adventure with our trail maps." Don't forget that the Kelley Library possesses the CD ROM compilation of National Geographic, which has great maps, and some maps created to accompany specific articles are also accessible through the National Geographic Society online.
Other kinds of mapping: the metaphor of the map is mind-boggling in its ability to help us understand aspects of human existence other than space. Here are a few applications beyond what one would expect. Some of these are obvious, some less so.
National Cooperative Geologic Mapping Program offers history and background on the creation of geologic maps.
The Internet Mapping Project is designed to do what it says: map the growth of the internet. Although the descriptions are almost unitelligible to some of us, those who understand what's going on may find this really interesting. The rest of us can just be impressed by the pretty pictures. (See the gallery.)
Poverty Mapping can give you a good idea of how geographic information can be used in policy making.
The gummint's Chromosome Mapping page, part of the Human Genome Project Information page.
Ljuba's Map Collection: a collection of maps showing worldwide linguistic affiliations and language groups, as well as some miscellaneous map stuff at the end.
Wikipedia's page on Mind-mapping is clearer than anything else I could find on the topic. And here's Wikipedia's "disambiguation" page that lays out different uses for the word "mapping."
Ursula K. LeGuin's maps of places in her novels: I always appreciate maps in books because they help readers imagine spaces, distances, locations. LeGuin's stories are all richly realized, and her maps help draw the reader into her narrative.
This is one of my favorite blogs--a lovely, poetic consideration of mapping: Moon River
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07.05.09