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Navigating Research at the Map Division: Getting Started at the New York Public Library: NYPL Digital Resources

Learn methods and strategies, to search for maps at NYPL's Lionel Pincus and Princess Firyal Map Division.

What can you find online?

NYPL provides a number of materials available online, for the public to utilize in their research. Such materials include digitized maps, instructional courses, guides to assist you in specified research, and databases. Please see below for a selection of these digital resources and materials.

If you would like to learn more about our online resources, please review Research at NYPL: Remote Access to Collections and Services to see additional resources and databases from NYPL that are available from home! Please note that some material will require you to have a NYPL Library Card. If you do not have one, you can start the process by either using our online application or visiting a local NYPL branch.  

And, if you have any questions, you can always reach us with further questions by emailing maps@nypl.org

Click on the tabs, to discover what NYPL resources you can find online!

The NYPL Digital Collections can reached by either:

  • going directly to the website at digitalcollections.nypl.org
  • clicking the Research tab on the NYPL Home Page, and scrolling down to click "Digital Collections"
  • if an item is digitized, its record in the Online Research Catalog will state "Electronic Resource: Image[s] via NYPL Digital Collections"

Some highlights of cartographic materials that you can view in NYPL's Digital Collections can be found on the following lists: 

To access digitized materials for your own research topics and interests, there are 2 ways you can search in NYPL Digital Collections: 

General Keyword Search

1. You can do a general keyword search on the main page, as seen below.

NYPL Digital collections home page

 

Using "New York" as an example, when a simple keyword search is done, materials from across all the research divisions are shown. To find map-specific resources, go to the left-side panel and click "Divisions." From there, you can click either "Map Division" or "Lionel Pincus and Princess Firyal Map Division" to find map-specific resources that relate to your keyword search.

NYPL Digital collections facets

 

2. Browsing Division-Specific Material

On the main page of the Digital Collections site, click "Browse." In the drop-down menu, click "Divisions."

NYPL Digital collections home page

 

On the new page, scroll down till you see "Map Division." Click on it, and you will be redirected to the following page. You can search the Map Division's digitized items, via collections. 

NYPL Digital collections divisional page for Map Division

High Resolution Digital Reproductions

For a large percentage of the map images in NYPL’s Digital Collections, researchers are able to download the digitized images.

Before doing so, we do advise that you scroll down the page of the digitized image and look for the "Rights Statement." This statement will indicate the copyright uses related to said image.

To download an image, the page of the digitized image will include a section called "Download Options." Feel free to click the appropriate file size of your choosing to download.

Please contact our Permissions Department at permissions@nypl.org and review NYPL's Copies and Reproduction services for further questions relating to obtaining digital files for reproduction.

The Map Division has created a number of Research Guides that you can use to help with your research.

To get to these guides:

Available Guides:

Finding Places: Guide on how to use gazetteers and other place-name resources. Useful for locations that have changed names, varied spellings, and/or changed boundaries. 

Historical Travels: Guide on how to reconstruct journeys from the past, using maps, travel guides, time tables, and additional resources. 

NYC Metro Area Interactive Maps & Geographic Information Systems Resources: Guide includes links to a wide variety of digital maps on the Internet describing the New York City metropolitan area, including parts of suburban NYC, New Jersey, and Connecticut. Topics include architecture & urban design, communities & neighborhoods, the environment, transportation, and political boundaries.

NYC Urban Ecosystem Toolbox : Guide on primary and secondary resources regarding the environmental aspects of New York City. 

NYC's Early African American Settlements: Guide and resources regarding the four best known pre-20th century African American settlements in NYC

Remote Map Research at NYPL: Guide on how to conduct virtual research via the Map Division's collection

Other Guides of Note

Additional list of resources that reference staff from the Map Division has compiled:

Under "Irma and Paul Milstein Division of United States History, Local History and Genealogy" in "Research Guides to Online Resources":

 

As a division, we also post blogs and recordings of past events, via our NYPL Blog! 

Topics for blog posts can surround popular topics or popular questions, while recordings can include past events and classes. Some examples of useful blog posts include:

In addition, scroll down, to check out some of our past recordings about materials in our collection!

Doc Chat Episode 42: The Brooklyn Battery Bridge and the Fight to Save New York from The New York Public Library on Vimeo.

Doc Chat Episode 15: Exploitative Depictions of the Americas from The New York Public Library on Vimeo.

You can also use databases, as they pertain to your research.

To access databases related to cartographic resources:

In the drop-down for Subject," if you click "Maps and Cartography," you will pull up a number of databases that are pertinent to our division. Please note, that Digital Sanborn Maps 1867-1970 does require a NYPL library card for access.

While using these resources,  remember that maps can be utilized with a number of other types of resources. Feel free to search this portal, to see if you can cross-reference material from other databases with maps.

  • Example: Addresses from census records in NYPL's subscription to Ancestry Library Edition can be cross-referenced with material from Digital Sanborn Maps 1867-1970.

Database home page for databases related to maps

Map-Specific Databases: 

Additional Databases to Supplement Cartographic Research

When conducting cartographic research, it is also useful to search through other general databases that the Library subscribes to. For instance:

  • a general scholarly articles database might include some articles related to maps and cartography
  • a periodicals database might have articles that are supplemented by maps
  • genealogy sites might include records (i.e. the census, immigration records, etc.) that correspond with information on the maps

As such, please see below for a few examples of other general databases at NYPL that could include and/or supplement cartographic resources.

Scholarly articles and reference texts:

Periodicals:

Genealogy:

Also know that you can review a list of recommended Free Internet Resources that are relevant for a variety of topics. For cartographic purposes specifically, you can click the drop-down menu for Subject and click "Maps and Cartography." 

Les Anciens Plans de Paris title pagePublic Domain and Research Books

The Library, in partnership with Google, has digitized more than 400,000 books from its historic collection. These books published before 1925 are in the public domain and can be found here in Google Books. Additional public domain books digitized from NYPL and other research library collections can be found at HathiTrust.  Among these, you can find books about mapping and the history of cartography, cartobibliographies, and gazetteers to locate places on old maps. Some examples include:

 

In addition, NYPL has developed Digital Research Books, an early beta test of a new project that collects digital versions of research books from many different sources — including Open Access publications — into one convenient place to search. There are multiple digital versions available for many books (from various editions and sources or in multiple formats), and Digital Research Books makes it easier to understand the differences between them.

Image courtesy of HathiTrust. Franklin, Alfred. Les Anciens Plans de Paris. Paris : Léon Willem, 1878-1880.

E-Books and E-Audiobooks

Among the more than 300,000 e-books and e-audiobooks available to borrow at NYPL, there are some about maps at your local NYPL branch.

Find accessible e-book offerings in the catalog for the circulating collection- to do so, after you do a general keyword search, your results page will include a column called Refine Your Search. In this column, make sure to click either E-BOOK or E-AUDIOBOOK under Format.  Learn about downloading e-reader apps to your device at E-Book Central.

Here are a few examples of e-copies that are available to borrow:

  • The Map That Changed the World: William Smith and the Birth of Modern Geology, by Simon Winchester
  • Mapping the Nation: History and Cartography in Nineteenth-Century America, by Susan Schulten
  • Never Lost Again: The Google Mapping Revolution that Sparked New Industries and Augmented Our Reality, by Bill Kilday