Map Collection
W.E.B Du Bois Library - 2nd floor

Map Collection Home

Massachusetts Maps

United States Maps

World and Celestial Maps

Aerial Photo Collection

Environmental and Geoscience Maps

Outdoor Recreation Maps and Guides

Using Maps

Directions and Transportation

World and Celestial Maps

Recent and historic world maps in the Map Collection depict the world and its hemispheres, continents, regions, countries and local areas, including some major cities. Thematic world maps cover the physical sciences, biogeography, human and cultural geology, economics, mines and mineral resources, agriculture, forests, commerce, time zones, transportation, and history.  Historic world maps and atlases demonstrate the changes in boundaries, names, and territories over time.  Topographic world map series of varying scales provide detailed information on a number of regions and countries, including the AMS 1:1,000,000 world series.

WWII maps form an extensive subcollection of detailed maps depicting the theater of war in Europe, Africa, Asia, and the Pacific during the 1930’s and 1940’s.  These maps illustrate topography, strategic areas, transportation, structures, territorial claims and city plans from both Allied and Axis sources.

Celestial maps and atlases in the Map Collection range from the universe, galaxy and solar system to Mars and the Moon.  Maps of Mars and the Moon include space exploration photos and a photomosaic series of the Martian surface.

Most of the world and celestial maps in the Collection are not entered in the Library’s online catalog, but a limited number can be found there with a subject search for  “world maps”, “moon maps”. 

Additional celestial and world map resources:

World

David Rumsey Historical Map Collection database
http://www.davidrumsey.com/

GIS Data Depot.  Free GIS data.
http://data.geocomm.com/

The Harvard Geospatial Library
http://peters.hul.harvard.edu:8080/HGL/jsp/HGL.jsp

USGS Global Visualization Viewer. Landsat 7 Browser
http://glovis.usgs.gov/

Land Process distributed Active Archive Center. From NASA’s Earth Observing System.
http://edcdaac.usgs.gov/main.asp

The Living Earth.  Live satellite images.
http://www.fourmilab.ch/cgi-bin/uncgi/Earth/action?opt=-p

Map History.  Images of early maps
http://www.maphistory.info/webimages.html

NASA’s World Wind Landsat satellite and Shuttle Radar Topography Mission images and data.
http://worldwind.arc.nasa.gov/ 

Norman B. Leventhal Map Center at the Boston Public Library
http://maps.bpl.org

Oddens Bookmarks. University of Utrecht.  Extensive  links to sites on maps and cartography.
http://oddens.geog.uu.nl/index.php

Perry-Castenada Map Collection
http://www.lib.utexas.edu/maps/

United Nations Cartographic Section.  Maps of regions, countries, themes, and peacekeeping operations.
http://www.un.org/Depts/Cartographic/english/htmain.htm

United Nations GRID online GIS and Maps Database
http://www.grida.no/db/gis/prod/html/complete.htm

USGS Image Collections. Includes images of environmental change.
http://www.usgs.gov/science/science.php?type=theme&term=575

World Factbook Reference Maps. CIA
https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/docs/refmaps.html

Celestial

Astronomical Observatories
http://www.astro.umass.edu/links/aobs.html

Astronomy links
http://www.astro.umass.edu/links/ainfo.html
 from the Department of Astronomy, University of Massachusetts Amherst
http://www-astro.phast.umass.edu/

Chandra X-Ray Observatory Photo Album
http://chandra.harvard.edu/photo/2006/m31/

Hubble Heritage Information Center.  Hubble space images.
http://heritage.stsci.edu/commonpages/infoindex/infoindex.html

Research links for the Department of Astronomy, University of Massachusetts Amherst
http://www.astro.umass.edu/ast_page/Research/research.html