Discussion
I just noticed that Arcanum Maps, a server with lots of historical maps of Europe, has now installed a paywall for its maps.
Which is a shame, since those maps were _really_ useful for my research of folkloric locations. Can anyone suggest any alternative?
Or perhaps tell me what their sources were for their standard "Europe in the 19th century" map layer?
@juergen_hubert Sources (mostly) Poland-centered, but as we have significant historical overlap with Germany/Austria, I hope they'd be useful; and many are not limited to Polish (any-when) territory.
Mapy z przeszłością by Institute of History, Polish Academy of Sciences. The interface is in Polish, but really simple, and maps are overlayed on OSM.
Stare Plany Miast - Nostalgiczna Strona Internetu City maps, mostly from current or historical Polish territory (but because of the overlap, should be useful).
Old maps of Poland and Central Europe - very comprehensive archive, though not exactly convenient to use. Has English and German version, but maps titles are not translated; on the other hand, there's place name search and sheet index.
Some historical maps are also on NID (National Heritage Institute) site, NID | Portal mapowy. The map shows heritage sites, but there are historical maps layers in Zawartość mapy » Warstwy » Mapy historyczne (IH PAN). The maps come from Institute of History, so there's significant overlap with Mapy z przeszłością, I haven't cross-checked if they are fully equivalent, though.
Digital Libraries Federation is a meta-search for Polish, well, digital libraries. Searching for “map” alone yields over 71k results.
Definitely! "Figuring out which old German place name now corresponds to which location in modern-day Poland" is one of my primary use cases for map research!
@juergen_hubert National Libraries like gallica.bnf.fr are amazing. If you search outside your country/region research area you can find true unknown gems (wrongly catalogued). BND Portugal also have some maps, a quick search:
https://bndigital.bnportugal.gov.pt/records/item/16304-silesia-alemanha?offset=3
https://bndigital.bnportugal.gov.pt/records/item/15947-valesia-wallisser-land?offset=155
Thanks, though I am primarily interested in historical maps of German-speaking (or formerly German-speaking) regions.
@juergen_hubert That was my guess. I'm pretty sure you can find cool things in gallica.bnf.fr and in www.europeana.eu/. Just updated the maps links to English, they represent:
- Silésia (Schlesien)
- Brandenburg and Saxony, with Pomerania, Prussia, Lusatia and the Northern Silesia
- Swiss German speaking Valesia.
And thank you for adverting about the monetization of the maps site.
Memo to self: I think the map they used were from the so-called "Preußische Landesaufnahme".
I should be able to get the maps elsewhere, even if I won't be able to use their neat map layer any more.
@juergen_hubert National Library of Scotland is good for a start.
@juergen_hubert You may find something at Stanford’s David Rumsey Map Collection: https://www.davidrumsey.com/. Though it mostly focuses on maps of the Americas, it does also feature maps of Europe.
Install bonfire.cafe
Get the full app experience
