LibGuides: Historical GIS & Geospatial Analysis: Downloadable Georeferenced Historical Maps

Downloadable Georeferenced Historical United States Maps

National Scope Collections
State-Specific Collections

U.S. Topographic Maps

(GIS Data) USGS TopoView
This digital archive provided by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) includes digitized and georeferenced digital topographic maps created by the USGS dating back to 1880. These maps are in the public domain and free to download and use. Georeferenced filed are available as GeoTIFFs, JPEGs, Google Earth KMZs, and GeoPDFs.

(GIS Data) Historical Topo Map Explorer
This free ArcGIS Online app created by Esri's Living Atlas team provides searchable access to historical topo maps created by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS). These maps are free to use and download. USGS topo maps are in the public domain. These maps can be downloaded as GeoTIFFs or added to an ArcGIS Online map.

Focused Map Collections

(GIS Data) Atlas of Historical County Boundaries
This web app created by the Newberry Library in Chicago, Illinois presents in maps and text complete data about the creation and all subsequent changes in the size, shape, and location of every county in the fifty United States and the District of Columbia.The principal sources for these data include the session laws of the colonies, territories, and states. Data is available to download in GIS Shapefiles, Google Earth KMZ files, or as PDFs and can be used for free in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 2.5 Generic license.
(GIS Data) IPUMS International Historical Geographic Information System (IHGIS): U.S. Census Shapefiles
IPUMS (the Integrated Public Use Microdata Series) is part of the Minnesota Population Center at the University of Minnesota. IPUMS provides free access to downloadable shapefiles for U.S. census boundary files dating back the first census in 1790. These shapefiles can be imported into GIS software. Access and use is free, however registering for a free IPUMS account is required.
(GIS Data) United Sates Congressional Districts
This site is hosted by the University of California Los Angeles Political Science department. It provides digital boundary definitions for every U.S. Congressional District in use between 1789 and 2012. Files can be downloaded as GIS shapefiles or GeoJSON files and can be used for free. Consult the project website for how to cite these data files.
(GIS Data) Railroads and the Making of Modern America
This site hosted by the University of Nebraska–Lincoln provides free access to 19th century U.S. railroad line layers in KML files and an ArcGIS geodatabase.
(GIS Data) National Register of Historic Places Polygons
The U.S. National Parks Service provides polygons for all historical buildings, objects, sites, structures, and districts on the National Register of Historic Places. Files can be be downloaded as GIS shapefiles, GeoJSON files, or KML files and can be used for free.

General Map Collections

(GIS Data) Norman B. Leventhal Map & Education Center, Boston Public Library: Georeferenced Maps
This site provides free downloadable historical United States and international maps. This particular link filters on just Leventhal Map & Education Center maps that are georeferenced. Use the Place menu in the left sidebar to filter on continent, country, state, county, or other localities, These maps are free to use under the public domain (No known copyright restrictions) or Creative Commons licenses; check each map item record. Maps can be downloaded as GeoTIFFs for use in GIS applications or KML files use in Google Earth and Google Maps.
(GIS Data) University of California Berkeley Library: Geodata, Georeferenced Maps
This site provides free downloadable historical United States and international maps. This particular link filters on just the Earth Sciences & Map Library's maps that are georeferenced. Use the Place menu in the left sidebar to filter on continent, country, state, county, or other localities. These maps are free to download. Consult the rights statement on each map item record for the specific terms of use. Maps can be downloaded as GeoTIFFs for use in GIS applications.
(GIS Data) David Rumsey Map Collection: Georeferenced Maps
The online historical map collection has over 135,000 digitize maps and related images from around the world, dating from 1500 to the present. This particular link filters on just georeferenced maps in the collections. Use the Georeferenced Map Finder to identify maps for a specific location. The collections includes many maps that reside in the public domain, however the digitized images are licensed under a CC BY-NC-SA 3.0 license. Creative Commons licensed maps can be downloaded. Georeferenced maps can be exported as GeoTIFF files.
(GIS Data) Harvard University, Geospatial Library: Georeferenced Raster Maps
This site provides free downloadable historical United States and international maps. This particular link filters on just the georeferenced raster data maps that can be downloaded as GeoTIFF files. Use the Place menu in the left sidebar to filter on continent, country, state, county, or other localities. Publicly accessible and downloadable maps are available under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license.
(GIS Data) Harvard University, Geospatial Library: Shapefles
This site provides free downloadable historical United States and international maps. This particular link filters on just the maps that can be downloaded as shapefiles to import into GIS applications. Use the Place menu in the left sidebar to filter on continent, country, state, county, or other localities. Publicly accessible and downloadable shapefiles are available under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license.
(GIS Data) New York University Spatial Data Repository: Georeferenced Maps
This site provides free downloadable historical United States and international maps. This particular link filters on just the georeferenced raster data maps that can be downloaded as GeoTIFF files. Use the Place menu in the left sidebar to filter on continent, country, state, county, or other localities. This link filters on maps that are publicly available for free to download and use.
(GIS Data) Stanford University Libraries EarthWorks: Digitized Maps
This site provides access to many different types of digitized maps focusing on the United States and other countries. This link filters on just maps that are publicly viewable and available to download. Use the left sidebar to filter on a type of map and by place (continent, country, locality, etc.). Georeferenced and non-georeferenced maps are mixed together, and there is no ability to filter on just georeferenced maps, so you have to determine that map image by image. Georeferenced maps are available as GeoTIFF files. Consult the rights statement on each item record to confirm terms of use.

North Carolina

(GIS Data) UNC University Libraries: Georeferenced Historical NC Maps
This site provides access to georeferenced historical North Carolina maps that can be imported into GIS software. The georeferenced maps are packaged in zip files that include the PNG map image file accompanied by a readme.txt file and metadata. These files are made available for research purposes only. Before publishing or distributing the map images, users must first ask permission from the repository identified in the readme.txt file that owns the original map.

Texas

(GIS Data) University of Texas Libraries GeoData: Georeferenced Texas Maps
This site provides access to georeferenced historical maps for the state of Texas, such as Sanborn Maps. Use the "Place" filter in the left sidebar to filter by locality name. These GeoTIFF maps are in the public domain and are free to download and use.

Utah

(GIS Data) University of Utah, J. Williard Marriott Library: Georeferenced Utah Sanborn Maps
This site provides access to georeferenced historical Sanborn Maps for the state of Utah. These maps reside in the public domain and are free to download and use. Files are available in a zipped file that contains a gereferenced JPG and accompanying metadata files for GIS applications, or as a KMZ file for Google Earth Pro or Google Maps.

Downloadable Georeferenced Historical International Maps

(GIS Data) Norman B. Leventhal Map & Education Center, Boston Public Library: Georeferenced Maps
This site provides free downloadable historical United States and international maps. This particular link filters on just Leventhal Map & Education Center maps that are georeferenced. Use the Place menu in the left sidebar to filter on continent, country, state, county, or other localities, These maps are free to use under the public domain (No known copyright restrictions) or Creative Commons licenses; check each map item record. Maps can be downloaded as GeoTIFFs for use in GIS applications or KML files use in Google Earth and Google Maps.
(GIS Data) University of California Berkeley Library: Geodata, Georeferenced Maps
This site provides free downloadable historical United States and international maps. This particular link filters on just the Earth Sciences & Map Library's maps that are georeferenced. Use the Place menu in the left sidebar to filter on continent, country, state, county, or other localities. These maps are free to download. Consult the rights statement on each map item record for the specific terms of use. Maps can be downloaded as GeoTIFFs for use in GIS applications.
(GIS Data) David Rumsey Map Collection: Georeferenced Maps
The online historical map collection has over 135,000 digitize maps and related images from around the world, dating from 1500 to the present. This particular link filters on just georeferenced maps in the collections. Use the Georeferenced Map Finder to identify maps for a specific location. The collections includes many maps that reside in the public domain, however the digitized images are licensed under a CC BY-NC-SA 3.0 license. Creative Commons licensed maps can be downloaded. Georeferenced maps can be exported as GeoTIFF files.
(GIS Data) Harvard University, Geospatial Library: Georeferenced Raster Maps
This site provides free downloadable historical United States and international maps. This particular link filters on just the georeferenced raster data maps that can be downloaded as GeoTIFF files. Use the Place menu in the left sidebar to filter on continent, country, state, county, or other localities. Publicly accessible and downloadable maps are available under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license.
(GIS Data) Harvard University, Geospatial Library: Shapefles
This site provides free downloadable historical United States and international maps. This particular link filters on just the maps that can be downloaded as shapefiles to import into GIS applications. Use the Place menu in the left sidebar to filter on continent, country, state, county, or other localities. Publicly accessible and downloadable shapefiles are available under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license.
(GIS Data) New York University Spatial Data Repository: Georeferenced Maps
This site provides free downloadable historical United States and international maps. This particular link filters on just the georeferenced raster data maps that can be downloaded as GeoTIFF files. Use the Place menu in the left sidebar to filter on continent, country, state, county, or other localities. This link filters on maps that are publicly available for free to download and use.
(GIS Data) Stanford University Libraries EarthWorks: Digitized Maps
This site provides access to many different types of digitized maps focusing on the United States and other countries. This link filters on just maps that are publicly viewable and available to download. Use the left sidebar to filter on a type of map and by place (continent, country, locality, etc.). Georeferenced and non-georeferenced maps are mixed together, and there is no ability to filter on just georeferenced maps, so you have to determine that map image by image. Georeferenced maps are available as GeoTIFF files. Consult the rights statement on each item record to confirm terms of use.

Historical GIS & Geospatial Analysis: Downloadable Georeferenced Historical Maps

Introduction

Downloadable Georeferenced Historical Maps

Why Use Georeferenced Historical Maps?

About This Directory

Downloadable Georeferenced Historical United States Maps

U.S. Topographic Maps

Focused Map Collections

General Map Collections

North Carolina

Texas

Utah

Downloadable Georeferenced Historical International Maps

Web Accessibility