The ArcGIS Online US Geological Survey (USGS) topographic map collection now contains over 177,000 historical quadrangle maps dating from 1882 to 2006. The USGS Historical Topographic Map Explorer app brings these maps to life through an interface that guides users through the steps for exploring the map collection:

Finding the maps of interest is simple. Users can see a footprint of the map in the map view before they decide to add it to the display, and thumbnails of the maps are shown in pop-ups on the timeline. The timeline also helps users find maps because they can zoom and pan, and maps at select scales can be turned on or off by using the legend boxes to the left of the timeline. Once maps have been added to the display, users can reorder them by dragging them. Users can also download maps as zipped GeoTIFF images. Users can also share the current state of the app through a hyperlink or social media. This ArcWatch article guides you through each of these steps: https://www.esri.com/esri-news/arcwatch/1014/envisioning-the-past.

The ArcGIS Online USGS Topographic Maps image service contains over 181,000 historical topographic quadrangle maps (quads) dating from 1879 to 2006. These maps are part of the USGS Historical Topographic Map Collection (HTMC) which includes all the historical quads that had been printed since the USGS topographic mapping program was initiated in 1879. Previously available only as printed lithographic copies, the historical maps were scanned “as is” to create high-resolution images that capture the content and condition of each map sheet. All maps were georeferenced, and map metadata was captured as part of the process.

For the Esri collection, the scanned maps were published as this ArcGIS Online image service which can be viewed on the web and allows users to download individual scanned images. Esri’s collection contains historical quads (excluding orthophotos) dating from 1879 to 2006 with scales ranging from 1:10,000 to 1:250,000. The scanned maps can be used in ArcGIS Pro, ArcGIS Online, and ArcGIS Enterprise. They can also be downloaded as georeferenced TIFs for use in these and other applications.

We make it easy for you to explore and download these maps, or quickly create an ArcGIS Online map, using our Historical Topo Map Explorer app. The app provides a visual interface to search and explore the historical maps by geographic extent, publication year, and map scale. And you can overlay the historical maps on a satellite image or 3D hillshade and add labels for current geographic features.

USGS Historical Topographic Map Explorer

An extract of 9 USGS topographic maps, accessed via the Living Atlas Historical Topo Map Explorer. 1967 Centerville 1:24,000;1967 Circle Pines 1:24,000;1967 New Brighton 1:24,000;1967 White Bear Lake West 1:24,000;1955 Anoka 1:62,500;1955 Isanti 1:62,500;1955 New Brighton 1:62,500;1902 White Bear 1:62,500;1916 St Francis 1:62,500

Explore The history of topographical maps : symbols, pictures and surveys through data • Key facts: author, publication date, book publisher, book series, book subjects • Real-time news, visualizations and datasets

The National Map provides core geographic data about the United States and its territories. The National Map supports data download, digital and print versions of topographic maps, geospatial data services, and online viewing. Data include: Elevation, Orthoimagery, Hydrography, Geographic Names, Boundaries, Transportation, Structures, and Land Cover, while products include: US Topo and Historical Topo Maps. The National Map Viewer also allows visualization and identification queries (but not downloads) of Other Featured Data, to include Scanned Topo Maps, Ecosystems, Protected Areas, Gap Analysis Program Land Cover, Wetlands, Public Land Survey System, and National Park Service Boundaries. Also included is a Natural Hazards panel to view hazards-related information, such as for earthquakes, floods, wildfires, and weather, along with the U.S. National Grid for emergency response.

December 1995, June 2001

Before the advent of satellite imagery, aerial photography captured from planes offered a way to systematically document land information. The Australian Survey Corps and Royal Australian Air Force flew photography to produce topographic maps. Geoscience Australia’s predecessor organisations, such as the Australian Surveying and Land Information Group (AUSLIG), and the Division of National Mapping, also undertook aerial photography campaigns. Through these campaigns, every part of Australia and its external territories was imaged at some point, and often repeatedly. Our collection dates back to the 1920s, with coverage across our diverse country and neighbouring region. Discover historical aerial photos through a user-friendly interface that provides straightforward access to the digitised photos and metadata. Key featuresInteractive map: Zoom and pan in the interactive map to explore historical aerial photos. Photo details: Click on any photo point to obtain details of that photo, as well as a link to the full-resolution scanned frame or lower resolution preview image (if digitised). Flight line details: Click on any flight line to obtains details of that run, including frame numbers captured. User-friendly interface: Designed for users of all levels, this app provides a streamlined and intuitive experience for exploring historical aerial photos. CurrencyModification frequency: Data updated periodically, as more films are digitised.ContactGeoscience Australia, aerialphotography@ga.gov.auChangelogVersion 1.0.0 (25-07-2024) Map configured with the following layers:  Photo centres Flight lines Photo point cluster 4km, 6km, 8km, 10km, 12km, 14km hexagon aggregates. 250k AUSTopo map index 4 Mile military map index 1 Mile military map index ArcGIS Experience Builder app created using the following widgets/windows: Fixed window (splash screen) Point cluster legend Scanned/not scanned photo centre and flight line legend Links to HAP survey and GA aerial photography email address

Fixed window (user guide) Configured with card and column widgets to display six views of instructions with accompanying screenshots

Fixed window (about our historical aerial photo collection)

Configured with card and column widgets to display information about the collection.

Query Widget, configured to search photos

Date search

Digitisation status search (scanned, not scanned or both)

Film type search (B&W, B&W infrared, colour, colour infrared, infrared, unknown)

Film number search

Spatial filter (current map extent, full map extent or drawn polygon/rectangle)

Query Widget, configured to search flight lines

Date search

Digitisation status search (scanned, not scanned or both)

Film number search

Spatial filter (current map extent, full map extent or drawn polygon/rectangle)

Add Data Widget

Configured for users to add data from AGOL, Living Atlas, DAA curated collection, URLs and local drives.

Coordinates Widget

WGS 1984 Web Mercator Auxiliary Sphere

Map Layers Widget

Toggle on/off

Basemap widget displaying the Basemap Gallery

Configured to open on Dark Gray Canvas

Address or place search bar

Configured to use the HAP locator view which only returns relevant places or addresses.

There are a variety of resources available via The National Map homepage, such as static maps, interactive map viewers, and geospatial data. Some of these maps and apps include, the National Map Viewer, the 3D Elevation Program, the National Hydrography Dataset and Hydrography Viewer, the Historical Topographic Map and the US Topo. Via The National Map, historical topographic maps are available to search and download via a variety of options. The 3D Elevation Program (3DEP) provides information about, and access to elevation data meeting the 3DEP guidelines. Users can also access and view the National Hydrography Dataset via the Hydrography viewer; this is similar to the National Map Viewer, however the basemap is based on HUC watersheds. Using the National Map Viewer, users can search for, access and download current 7.5 minute US Topos for the entire country; users can also explore and view other data for their area of interest. Below, find links to the different The National Map resources that were described above. The National Map also provides access to other data and viewers, such as the National Land Cover Database, and The National Map Corps.

Explore the historical Whois records related to topographic-maps.com (Domain). Get insights into ownership history and changes over time.

Explore the historical Whois records related to topomap.com (Domain). Get insights into ownership history and changes over time.

A quick 3D map of the area around the John Jarvie Ranch Historical Ranch in northeastern Utah.

The topographic map was downloaded from USGS TopoView, and the elevation data is clipped from 1/3 arc-second DEM data availalbe for download from The National Map. The geospatial data was edited with QGIS and combined into a finished model with Blender.

Source: Objaverse 1.0 / Sketchfab

The Greater Philadelphia GeoHistory Network contains geographic materials connected to the history of Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and the City of Philadelphia. The available resources include aerial photographs, city directories, atlases, surveys, property maps, topographical maps, and transportation maps. An interactive map viewer enables users to view layers of historic maps at various transparencies in conjunction with a current streets overlay.

The historic maps in the map viewer are available as tile services for appropriate projects - contact the project for further information.

Land and Property Information (LPI’s) Cached map service is a rasterised topographic maps covering NSW. This service contains a selection of standard Topographic maps from the 1:100,000; 1:50,000 …Show full descriptionLand and Property Information (LPI’s) Cached map service is a rasterised topographic maps covering NSW. This service contains a selection of standard Topographic maps from the 1:100,000; 1:50,000 and 1:25,000 series produced between 1970 and 1997. Where coverage exists at multiple scales the largest scale map is displayed. It compromises the “collars off” tiff images for the current (1:100000, 1:50000 and 1:25000) Topo maps, and replaces the “1970-1997” series shown in the old six viewer.

Georeferenced (to WGS1984) and cropped set of about 820 historic maps of Burma at a scale of 1 inch per mile (63,360) covering about 75% of the country. Those topographic maps, originally produced and published by the Great Trigonometrical Survey of India between 1899 and 1946, have been scanned and shared with the public as part of the "Old Survey Of India Maps” Community under a CC BY 4.0 International Licence. Many of these maps are reprints of earlier maps produced before the war. Most mapsheets are early editions (edition 1 or edition 2).

Each of the 820 map sheet scans was georeferenced using the Latitude-Longitude corner coordinates in Everest 1830 projection. Those map sheets were cropped, keeping only the map area - to allow a seamless mosaic without the mapframe overlapping adjacent map sheets when several map sheets are put together in a GIS. Those cropped map sheets were projected from Everest 1830 to WGS1984 (EPSG4326) - standard GPS - projection to make them easier to use and combine with other GIS data.

Those map sheets can be loaded directly in any GIS such as QGIS or ESRI ArcGIS as well as Google Earth.

• The mm_OI_JBv2024 folder contains the cropped end georeferenced map sheets in jpg-format as well as accompagning georeference and metadata incl.
  
  • The mm_OI_JBv2024_kmlLinks contains kml files to easily load the mapsheets into Google Earth
  • The mm_historicOI_EPSG4326.gdb contains an ESRI mosaic dataset to easily load all mapsheets into ArcGIS
• The mm_OI_JBv2024_scanMaps folder contains the uncropped original map scans (renamed though) in jpg-format.
• The mm_topoOI_JBv7_masterlist.xlsx is a masterlist cataloguing all map sheets for easier use and matching them with the original source files as shared as part of the "Old Survey Of India Maps" (e.g. to identify new mapsheets should new maps be released)
• The indexMaps folder contains small scale index maps to locate the map sheets using their map sheet Grid-Letter-nomenclature

All georeferenced map scans are based on maps shared by John Brown via Zenodo

• https://zenodo.org/records/8040798 (63k Maps of Burma, version 7, Published June 14, 2023)
• https://zenodo.org/records/10463372 (63k Maps of Burma--additional 1--20240105, version 1, Published January 5, 2024)

The file naming convention is to first give the number of the 4 degree x 4 degree block followed by the letter (A to P) of the sixteen 1 degree x 1 degree blocks in each 4 degree block eg. 38 D, and this is followed by a number from 1 to 16 to indicate the number of the map in the 1 degree block.

This Number Letter Number designation is followed by the map series type either OI (contains a LCC grid) or OILatLon (only has a Lat-Lon grid), followed by the edition and year of the edition, followed by the date of publication/print. If the information is not available an "X" (for edition) or "0000" (for an unknown year) is used. A best-guess approach was used if the edition and print year and version information was ambiguous.

The files as shared via the "Old Survey Of India Maps" have been renamed to standardize the file naming, sometimes correcting them and to make them unique in the case several editions of the same map sheet were available.

A topographical index produced by the Survey of India is provided to assist the viewer in selecting a particular map of interest.

Dataset contains building locations in Poland in 1970-80s. The source information were polish archival 1:10 000 topographical maps. Buildings were extracted from maps using Mask R-CNN model implemented in Esri ArcGIS Pro software. In post processing we have removed most of the false possitives. The dataset of building locations covers the entire country and contains approximately 11 million buildings. The accuracy of the dataset was assessed manually on randomly selected map sheets. The overall accuracy is 95% (F1 0.98).

The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) Aerial Photography data set includes over 2.5 million film transparencies. Beginning in 1937, photographs were acquired for mapping purposes at different altitudes using various focal lengths and film types. The resultant black-and-white photographs contain less than 5 percent cloud cover and were acquired under rigid quality control and project specifications (e.g., stereo coverage, continuous area coverage of map or administrative units). Prior to the initiation of the National High Altitude Photography (NHAP) program in 1980, the USGS photography collection was one of the major sources of aerial photographs used for mapping the United States. Since 1980, the USGS has acquired photographs over project areas that require photographs at a larger scale than the photographs in the NHAP and National Aerial Photography Program collections.

The datasets contain vector layers (topographic and glacier outlines) and Digital Elevation Model (DEM) covering western part of Sørkapp Land peninsula, Svalbard, for the year 1961. The first shape file „glacier_1961_western_Sorkappland.shp” contains the glacier areas manually delineated from vertical aerial photos captured during the historical photogrammetric overflight commissioned by the Norwegian Polar Institute on August 24 and 25, 1961. The shape file „contour_1961_western_Sorkappland.shp” contains contour lines with intervals of 10 m based on digitized historical maps edited in 1987 by Institute of Geophysics of Polish Academy of Sciences and registered using cartographic grid and elevation points. Shape file „peak_1961_western_Sorkappland.shp” contains elevation points – topographic and triangulation – used in the process of vector data registration. Shape file „rock_1961_western_Sorkappland.shp” delineates areas very steep presented on the source maps as a rock cliff symbols. This file also indicates areas where highest elevation errors in the generated Digital Elevation Model are plausible. All shape files were produced in the UTM projection system (northern hemisphere, zone 33) based on WGS84 ellipsoid (datum D_WGS_1984).

The raster file „dem_1961_20m_western_Sorkappland.tif” contains Digital Elevation Model (DEM) with 20 m resolution generated from corrected contour lines.

Analysis of historical maps and Landsat imagery suggests coastal glaciers in the western Prince William Sound have retreated since the end of the Little Ice Age, with a period of accelerated retreat after 2004/06. I develop a multi-temporal inventory of 43 glaciers based on historical field observations, topographic maps, and Landsat imagery. Area and length measurements are derived from digitized outlines, and center lines calculated using a semi-automatic, geographic information system-based algorithm. Land-based glaciers retreated at a rate of 22 m a-1 from ~1950 to 2004/06 and peaked to 48 m a-1 after 2004/06. From ~1950 to 2018, the total area of land-based glaciers decreased by 228 km2, with 36% of the glacier loss occurring after 2004/06. Tidewater glaciers reacted asynchronously compared to land-based glaciers, with differing rates of area and length loss. Evaluation of climate trends indicates increasing temperatures and decreasing winter precipitation in the study area.

Historical topographic maps of the study area provide the spatial data needed to extend glacier length change and area chronologies to the 1950s. The 21 maps I obtained for this study are available for download in a georeferenced format from the USGS (https://ngmdb.usgs.gov/topoview/viewer/#4/40.00/-100.00), allowing for use in geographical information systems (GIS) without further processing. The maps span 1951-1960 and are produced at the 1:63,360 scale from aerial photographs acquired from 1948-1957. I access Landsat images from an online service portal (ESRI, 2019). The images are georeferenced and orthorectified by USGS, allowing for direct integration into GIS. The images, at 30-60 m resolution, provide the spatial data for the repeat measurement of glacier outlines spanning 1973-2018. Previous studies provided Little Ice Age maximums for eight of the land-based glaciers analyzed in this study (Barclay et al., 2003; Wiles et al., 1999).

I manually digitize outlines from historical maps, topographic maps, and Landsat images for glaciers 10 km2 or larger. Each study glacier is identified by a project identification number; Global Land Ice Measurements (GLIMS) and Randolph Glacier Inventory (RGI) identification numbers; and glacier name, if available. I manually digitize and adjust glacier boundaries based on the interpretation of 1950/57 topographic maps and Landsat images acquired in 1973/75, 1986, 1994, 2004/06, and 2018. Glacier length changes are measured from the intersection of the center line with each glacier terminus. I repeat measurements for 1950/57 topographic maps and the Landsat images acquired in 1973/75, 1986, 1994, 2004/06, and 2018, resulting in a glacier length change chronology for each glacier. For a subset of eight glaciers, I measure length changes to the digitized LIA maximum terminus positions identified in previous studies.

San Joaquin Valley Subsidence Analysis README. Written: Joel Dudas, 3/12/2017. Amended: Ben Brezing, 4/2/2019. DWR’s Division of Engineering Geodetic Branch received a request in 1/2017 from Jeanine Jones to produce a graphic of historic subsidence in the entirety of the San Joaquin Valley. The task was assigned to the Mapping & Photogrammetry Office and the Geospatial Data Support Section to complete by early February. After reviewing the alternatives, the decision was made to produce contours from the oldest available set of quad maps for which there was reasonable certainty about quality and datum, and to compare that to the most current Valley-wide DEM. For the first requirement, research indicated that the 1950’s vintage quad maps for the Valley were the best alternative. Prior quad map editions are uneven in quality and vintage, and the actual control used for the contour lines was extremely suspect. The 1950’s quads, by contrast, were produced primarily on the basis of 1948-1949 aerial photography, along with control corresponding to that period, and referenced to the National Geodetic Vertical Datum of 1929. For the current set, the most recent Valley-wide dataset that was freely available, in the public domain, and of reasonable accuracy was the 2005 NextMap SAR acquisition (referenced to NAVD88). The primary bulk of the work focused on digitizing the 1950’s contours. First, all of the necessary quads were downloaded from the online USGS quad source https://ngmdb.usgs.gov/maps/Topoview/viewer/#4/41.13/-107.51. Then the entire staff of the Mapping & Photogrammetry Lab (including both the Mapping Office and GDDS staff) proceeded to digitize the contours. Given the short turnaround time constraint and limited budget, certain shortcuts occurred in contour development. While efforts were made to digitize accurately, speed really was important. Contours were primarily focused only on agricultural and other lowland areas, and so highlands were by and large skipped. The tight details of contours along rivers, levees, and hillsides was skipped and/or simplified. In some cases, only major contours were digitized. The mapping on the source quads itself varied….in a few cases on spot elevations on benchmarks were available in quads. The contour interval sometimes varied, even within the quad sheet itself. In addition, because 8 different people were creating the contours, variability exists in the style and attention to detail. It should be understood that given the purpose of the project (display regional subsidence patterns), that literal and precise development of the historic contour sets leaves some things to be desired. These caveats being said, the linework is reasonably accurate for what it is (particularly given that the contours of that era themselves were mapped at an unknown and varying actual quality). The digitizers tagged the lines with Z values manually entered after linework that corresponded to the mapped elevation contours. Joel Dudas then did what could be called a “rough” QA/QC of the contours. The individual lines were stitched together into a single contour set, and exported to an elevation raster (using TopoToRaster in ArcGIS 10.4). Gross blunders in Z values were corrected. Gaps in the coverage were filled. The elevation grid was then adjusted to NAVD88 using a single adjustment for the entire coverage area (2.5’, which is a pretty close average of values in this region). The NextMap data was extracted for the area, and converted into feet. The two raster sets were fixed to the same origin point. The subsidence grid was then created by subtracting the old contour-derived grid from the NextMAP DEM. The subsidence grid that includes all of the values has the suffix “ALL”. Then, to improve the display fidelity, some of the extreme values (above +5’ and below -20’*) were filtered out of the dataset, and the subsidence grid was regenerated for these areas and suffixed with “cut.” The purpose of this cut was to extract some of the riverine and hilly areas that produced more extreme values and other artifacts purely due to the analysis approach (i.e. not actual real elevation change). * - some of the areas with more than 20 feet of subsidence were omitted from this clipping, because they were in heavily subsided areas and may be “real subsidence.”The resulting subsidence product should be perceived in light of the above. Some of the collar of the San Joaquin Valley shows large changes, but that is simply due to the analysis method. Also, individual grid cells may or may not be comparing the same real features. Errors are baked into both comparison datasets. However, it is important to note that the large areas of subsidence in the primary agriculture area agree fairly well with a cruder USGS subsidence map of the Valley based on extensometer data. We have confidence that the big picture story these results show us is largely correct, and that the magnitudes of subsidence are somewhat reasonable. The contour set can serve as the baseline to support future comparisons using more recent or future data as it becomes available. It should be noted there are two key versions of the data. The “Final Deliverables” from 2/2017 were delivered to support the initial Public Affairs press release. Subsequent improvements were made in coverage and blunder correction as time permitted (it should be noted this occurred in the midst of the Oroville Dam emergency) to produce the final as of 3/12/2017. Further improvements in overall quality and filtering could occur in the future if time and needs demand it. Update (4/3/2019, Ben Brezing): The raster was further smoothed to remove artifacts that result from comparing the high resolution NextMAP DEM to the lower resolution DEM that was derived from the 1950’s quad map contours. The smoothing was accomplished by removing raster cells with values that are more than 0.5 feet different than adjacent cells (25 meter cell size), as well as the adjacent cells. The resulting raster was then resampled to a raster with 100 meter cell size using cubic resampling technique and was then converted to a point feature class. The point feature class was then interpolated to a raster with 250 meter cell size using the IDW technique, a fixed search radius of 1250 meters and power=2. The resulting raster was clipped to a smaller extent to remove noisier areas around the edges of the Central Valley while retaining coverage for the main area of interest.