Geography & Environmental Science Resource Guide

MAPS - Local and US

• The Cincinnati Map Collection - Historical maps and prints of the queen city, compiled by Dustin Marks
• Historical  Cincinnati maps - From UC Libraries' Archives and Rare Books collection
• Sanborn Fire Insurance maps, Cincinnati - Cincinnati, Digitization and access provided by the Cincinnati and Hamilton County Public Library.  Note, CHPL scans are in color!
• Sanborn Fire Insurance maps, Ohio - Sanborn Historic Maps are large scale street plans produced by the Sanborn Fire Insurance company from 1867 to 1970.  All of Ohio, scans in black and white, and provided by the Ohio Web Library.
• Sanborn Fire Insurance maps, Library of Congress collection - 25,000 Sanborn Fire Insurance Maps, which depict the structure and use of buildings in U.S. cities and towns. Maps will be added monthly until 2020, for a total of approximately 500,000.  Scans are in color.
• City of Cincinnati Topographic Survey of 1912- Digitization and access provided by the Cincinnati and Hamilton County Public Library.
• FEMA Map Service Center - Mapping services,particularly strong in areas of flood maps.
• NOAA - Bathemetric and Global Relief maps from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
• The National Map (USGS) - One stop for all USGS mapping products.
• USGS Topographic Map Indexes
• National Geologic Map-The National Geologic Map from the USGS.
• EarthExplorer -Query and order satellite images, aerial photographs, and cartographic products through the US Geological Survey.

MAPS - Global

• Geologic Map of Sudan (2004) - Authorized users include current UC faculty, staff, and students (who may access the repository from a computer on-campus or by connecting to our proxy or VPN services via a secure login).

MAPS - Historic

• David Rumsey Map Collection-This online collection of over 11,000 maps focuses on 18th and 19th century North and South American cartographic materials.
• Library of Congress Digital Map Collection
• New York Public Library - Historic GIS Project
• Perry-Castaneda Library Map Collection -Guide to the online PCL map collection.

• Broer Map Library Online Historical Maps -The Broer Map Library is an organization aimed at providing libraries and other organizations access to a large online map collection.
• Historic Cities - This site contains maps, literature, historic documents and other relevant materials pertaining to the past, present, and future of historic cities.  Created by the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, The Jewish National and University Library, and the Shapell digitization project. 
• World Digital Library - A project of the US Library of Congress and the United Nations, makes available significant primary materials from all countries and cultures.

The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) has publicly released more than 161,000 digitally scanned historical maps spanning in excess of 130 years and covering the conterminous lower 48 states.

http://nationalmap.gov/historical

Try these mapping and data sources:

• There are over 250,000 maps in the print collection!

• The collection focus/strengths are:

  • USGS topographic maps

  • USGS geologic maps

  • Ohio, Kentucky, and Indiana survey maps

• As of August 2024, most of the physical maps have moved to remote storage. Please consult the Phsycial Map Location Inventory pdf (below) if you are looking for a specific map and want to know its location.

• If you are looking for something that is not in the Science Library (formerly GMP), please talk to someone at the circulation desk or complete the Science and Engineering Request form.

The Science Library (240 Braunstein Hall) can help.  We have

• a map scanner with editing software
• a light table