Obtain 131,000 Ancient Maps from the Large David Rumsey Map Assortment

The arena has modified dra­mat­i­cal­ly during the last 500 years, albeit now not somewhat as dra­mat­i­cal­ly as how we see the arena. That’s simply what’s on dis­play on the David Rum­sey Map Col­lec­tion, whose greater than 131,000 his­tor­i­cal maps and relat­ed photographs are avail­in a position to browse (or down­load) loose on-line. Since we final fea­tured it right here on Open Cul­ture, the col­lec­tion has added a minimum of 40,000 pieces to its dig­i­tal hang­ings, mak­ing it an much more valu­in a position useful resource for now not slightly below­stand­ing how human­i­ty has seen the arena thru­out the ages, however how we’ve imag­ined it — and, for that mat­ter, how we’ve imag­ined oth­er worlds from Mars to Nar­nia to Kryp­ton.

“Imag­i­nary maps” is simply one of the vital cat­e­gories in which you’ll be able to discover the David Rum­sey Map Col­lec­tion. There also are tags for information­pa­in line with maps, time­strains, town maps, celes­tial maps, knowledge visu­al­iza­tions, chil­dren’s maps, and extra vari­eties but even so.

Should you’d pre­fer a extra tra­di­tion­al type of orga­ni­za­tion, you’ll be able to seek for maps of spe­cif­ic geo­graph­i­cal areas: North Amer­i­ca, South Amer­i­ca, Europe, Asia, Africa, Aus­tralia, Antarc­ti­ca, the Pacif­ic, the Arc­tic, and naturally, the international. If it’s the final thing you’re inter­est­ed in, aside from the con­sid­er­in a position two-dimen­sion­al hang­ings, the inter­ac­tive globes con­sti­tute a gallery of their very own, and there you’ll be able to view ones made between the mid-six­teenth cen­tu­ry and simply final 12 months from each and every pos­si­ble perspective.

A number of the web page’s new fea­tures is a “seek through text-on-maps” fea­ture, which you’ll be able to acti­vate through click on­ing the “through Textual content on Maps” however­ton subsequent to the quest win­dow on the best of the web page. This permits you to com­pare and con­trast the techniques par­tic­u­lar puts were classified at the vari­ety of maps within the col­lec­tion: now not simply prop­er names like Cairo, Madrid, and Yosemite, but additionally extra gen­er­al phrases like “gold mine,” “mild­space” or “drag­ons.” Arguably, we take a look at maps extra ceaselessly right here within the twen­ty-first cen­tu­ry than we ever did earlier than, regardless that sel­dom if ever can we go away from whichev­er map­ping app we hap­pen to stay on our telephones. It’s price step­ping again in automobile­to­graph­i­cal time to remem­ber that there have been as soon as as some ways of beneath­stand­ing the arena as there have been depic­tions of it.

Relat­ed con­tent:

Oculi Mun­di: A Beau­ti­ful On-line Archive of 130 Historic Maps, Atlases & Globes

40,000 Ear­ly Mod­ern Maps Are Now Freely Avail­in a position On-line (Cour­tesy of the British Library)

Historic Maps that Modified the Global: See Global Maps from Historic Greece, Child­lon, Rome, and the Islam­ic Global

An Archive of 800+ Imag­i­na­tive Professional­pa­gan­da Maps Designed to Form Opin­ions & Ideals: Input Cornell’s In line with­sua­sive Maps Col­lec­tion

Based totally in Seoul, Col­in Marshall writes and extensive­casts on towns, lan­guage, and cul­ture. His initiatives come with the Sub­stack newslet­ter Books on Towns, the e book The State­much less Town: a Stroll thru Twenty first-Cen­tu­ry Los Ange­les and the video sequence The Town in Cin­e­ma. Fol­low him on Twit­ter at @colinmarshall or on Face­e book.