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Monday, February 25, 2013 - 12:27pm Categories: Uncategorized
Archidiaconatus Garsensis: Tabula Topographica. Published in Vol. 1 of Monumenta Bioca by Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften in Munich, 1763.

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Archidiaconatus Baumburgensis: Tabula Topographica. Published in Vol. 3 of Monumenta Bioca by the Akademie in Munich, 1764.

These two maps note the locations of monasteries churches and chapels within two Archdioceses in Bavaria. One exception is a depiction in the Garsensis map of two armies clashing in red and blue coats. This is to note the glorious victory for House of Wittlesbach over the powerful Habsburgs,...

Continue reading "On Display This Week: Bavarian Monasteries"...
Monday, February 18, 2013 - 2:29pm Categories: Uncategorized
North America [Sheet V]: The North West and Michigan Territories. Published in London by the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge in 1833.

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Michigan and the Great Lakes. By Thomas Bradford and Published by Ticknor in Boston in 1835.

From 1818 to 1836 Wisconsin was part of Michigan Territory. European settlement was sparse west of Lake Michigan, with Green Bay Township, located in Brown County, and some lead mines in the southwest being the only settlements of note.

Map-makers rarely depicted the entire legal boundary of the Territory. Perhaps...

Continue reading "On Display This Week: Green Bay, Michigan?"...
Monday, February 11, 2013 - 1:35pm Categories: Uncategorized
Lansing-East Lansing Community Shelter Map: Public Shelter Location and Service Areas.

Made by the Tri-County Regional Planning Commission in 1970.

This map shows the locations of nuclear bomb shelters in the 3-county area around Lansing. The number next to each dot refers to a listing that names each of the 389 locations. Approximately one-quarter of the locations were not open to the general public but rather served a defined population (usually residents of a marked area).

The Tri-County Regional Planning Commission participated in a federal program to develop a...

Continue reading "On Display This Week: Lansing-East Lansing Community [Nuclear] Shelter Map, 1970"...
Monday, February 4, 2013 - 3:47pm Categories: Uncategorized
County of Montmorency Town 29 Range 1 East

This township plat map shows land owners in one 6-mile by 6-mile survey township in Montmorency County, Michigan. The names entered here represent the first time these lands were in private hands under state and federal law and shows transactions that occurred through about 1874.

Practically all of the land sold in this township served as either bounty lands to compensate veterans under the Scrip Warrant Act of 1855 or to support the establishment of Agricultural Colleges through the Morrill Act of 1862. The proceeds from land sold to...

Continue reading "On Display This Week:: Township Plat from mid-1870's"...
Monday, January 28, 2013 - 3:28pm Categories: Uncategorized
Carte Generale de Canada

Dediée au roy de Danemark par son trés humble et trés obeissant et trés fidele serviteur Lahontan. 1703.

Captain Louis-Armand de Lom d’Arce, Baron de Lahontan of the French marines explored the western Great Lakes. As a colorful and flamboyant figure he caused controversy and comment everywhere he went.

Scholars usually lambaste his cartographic style, which was less accurate than other works of his time. The stylization seems to accentuate relationships and features more so than spatial accuracy, much like a subway map.

Other troubles...

Continue reading "New in the Map Library: Carte Generale de Canada, 1703"...
Monday, January 7, 2013 - 7:39pm Categories: Uncategorized

Etats Unis de l'Amerique Septentrionale

by Charles François Delamarche, published by Antoine Boudet in Paris in 1785.

Detail from map

This map captures the state of affairs in the short period between the Treaty of Paris in 1783 and the formation of the Northwest Territory in 1787. When the United States successfully broke with Great Britain it consisted of 13 states and a considerable amount of unorganized territory. The exact boundaries of the states, especially their western boundaries, were quite imprecise.

The text mentions 10 new states to...

Continue reading "New in the Map Library: Etats Unis de l'Amerique Septentrionale, 1785"...
Wednesday, January 2, 2013 - 7:43pm Categories: Uncategorized

The MSU Map Library presents “Canada, ou Nouvelle France, &c.” by Nicolas Sanson, engraved by Jean Somer, published by Pierre Mariette in Paris in 1656.

This large hand-colored map represents important advances in European understanding of Great Lakes geography. It was the first map to draw and label all five Great Lakes in recognizable form. Lake Ontario bears an alternate name of Lac de St. Louys, and Erie also bears the alternate name ‘du Chat.’ Lake Huron is labeled Karegnon and Lake Michigan is known as Lac de Puans. Explorers had not yet reached the ends of the Great...

Continue reading "Sanson 1656 map of Le Canada ou Nouvelle France"...
Monday, December 10, 2012 - 1:30pm Categories: Uncategorized

The MSU Map Library has added several new sets of digital topographic maps:


Ethiopia at 1:250,000 by the Ethiopian Mapping Agency YaʼItyoṗyā kārtā śerā derejet

Somalia at 1:250,000 prepared from Joint Operations Graphic series 1501 (JOGs)

Somalia at 1:200,000 by the Soviet mapping agency Главное управление геодезии и картографии при Совете Министров СССР

These new sets join our Ethiopian JOGs which were added in June 2012. All sheets are available in JPG preview, TIF, and GeoTIF. In the future we plan to add some sheets of Somalia at 1:100...

Continue reading "Digital Topographic Maps: Somalia and Ethiopia"...
Tuesday, September 4, 2012 - 2:33pm Categories: Uncategorized

Landscan 2011 is a world population dataset at approximately 1 km resolution. It represents an ambient population (average over 24 hours). The LandScan algorithm uses spatial data and imagery analysis technologies and a multi-variable dasymetric modeling approach to disaggregate census counts within an administrative boundary. Since no single population distribution model can account for the differences in spatial data availability, quality, scale, and accuracy as well as the differences in cultural settlement practices, LandScan population distribution models are tailored to match the...

Continue reading "LandScan Global Population 2011"...
Tuesday, July 17, 2012 - 4:51pm Categories: Uncategorized

Oversized scanning resumed in the Map Library with the acquisition of a HP T2300 scanner. Sheet maps up to 42" wide may be fed through and saved in TIF, JPG, PDF, JP2, or DWF formats. Bring your own USB drive, sorry it won't take external hard drives unless they have their own power source. Scans cost $1.

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