Fri 9 Jun 2006
Historic USGS Topo Maps for Eastern US
Posted by Matt under Historic , Maps , Cartography , WebNo Comments
As posted in the CCA Cartography blog, MapTech is now hosting a collection of late 19th century to early 20th century USGS quad maps for much of the Eastern United States. States covered by this project include everything from West Virginia to Maine. Each state is searchable by quad name, town name, or a graphical quad index. The quads (generally 15 minute or 1:63,360) are available as high resolution scans divided into NE,NW,SE,SW sections. Each section can be viewed online or downloaded (~0.5 to ~2.0 megs), although world files are not included.
The story behind this invaluable collection is is just as exciting as the collection itself. Begun by a railroad enthusiast, Christopher Marshall, mapping abandoned right-of-ways in New Hampshire, this collection has grown from a library to library search in his home area to a state by state collaboration. With a big help from Meredith Ricker of the University of New Hampshire Dimond Library Government Documents Department and other volunteer map enthusiasts, the collection has grew state by state into the massive project that it is now.
In order to make this collection publicly accessible to other map nuts and researchers,
Christopher approached MapTech through a common acquaintance and asked if they would host it. MapTech accepted and published them free of charge.
In my line of work, maps like this are extremely valuable. Time series studies of housing location, density, and land use as well as locations of long forgotten features such as houses, mines, and hydrologic features are all based of historic USGS quads. The creation of historic sensitivity analysis is done with maps such as this in conjunction with aerial photos. Also, prehistoric studies can benefit from these maps for their indication of what hydrologic systems and landforms may have looked like before urban sprawl and mass development.
