Maps

From Ptolemy to GPS, the Brief History of Maps

We now have the whole world in our hands, but how did we get here?

British Camp Hill Fort in Herefordshire

Explore Ancient British Isles Hill Forts with a New Online Atlas

The atlas lists over 4,000 of the structures that dot the landscape, used as gathering spots for Bronze and Iron Age Britons

So. Many. Islands.

Indonesia’s Trying to Figure Out How Many Islands It Contains

And it’s really complicated

See the Gulf of Mexico's Seafloor Like Never Before With This 1.4-Billion-Pixel Map

Made from data collected from 200 proprietary maps from oil and gas companies, the new image has a resolution 16 times greater than the next best map

Joseph Stalin, Franklin D. Roosevelt and Winston Churchill at the Tehran Conference.

Interactive Map Shows the History of Presidential Travel

President Trump's first foreign trip follows a long line of international visits by heads of state

Multi-generational fighting over borders between the Calvert family that founded the colony of Maryland (pictured: Charles Calvert, 5th Baron Baltimore) and the Penn family that founded Pennsylvania (pictured: Thomas Penn, proprietor of Pennsylvania) led to the creation of the Mason-Dixon line.

This Long, Violent Border Dispute Between Colonial Maryland and Pennsylvania is Why We Have the Mason-Dixon Line

Cresap's War was a conflict that didn't get fully settled for almost 50 years

Mike Van Eaton of Van Eaton Galleries, posing with Disney's early map of Disneyland

Walt Disney’s Original Map of Disneyland Is Headed to Auction

Disney created the map with the artist Herb Ryman while trying to secure funds for his theme park

The Klencke Atlas

Massive Royal Atlas Gets Digitized

The magnificent Klencke Atlas is now available online courtesy of the British Library

Don't count on Google Maps to get you to this iconic cliff.

Google Maps Glitch Sends Tourists to the Wrong Norwegian Town

Preikestolen is not in Fossmork

Blood Falls

Antarctica's Blood Falls Helps Unravel the Inner Workings of Glaciers

A new study maps the path of the water that feeds the falls and explores how water can exist under the ice

This copy of the first chart of the Gulf Stream was printed in 1786, ten years after Benjamin Franklin first drew it up.

Benjamin Franklin Was the First to Chart the Gulf Stream

Franklin's cousin, Timothy Folger, knew how the then-unnamed current worked from his days as a whaler

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Learn the Secret History of Your State With These Addictive Podcasts

Use this indispensable guide to find out which podcast will be next on your listen list

This new map shows Earth's magnetic field from space.

This Magnetic Map Shows Earth as You’ve Never Seen It Before

Behold a new, super high-res view of Earth’s magnetic field

Just around the corner from the Great Barrier Reef, the ocean has been hiding a massive, ancient landslide.

Scientists Discovered a Gigantic, 300,000-Year-Old Landslide Under the Ocean

Long ago, an almost inconceivable amount of sand shifted, changing the surface of the sea floor

Astrolabes were astronomical calculating devices that did everything from tell the time to map the stars. This 16th century planispherical astrolabe stems from Morocco.

The Story of the Astrolabe, the Original Smartphone

Prosperous times likely paved the way for this multifunctional device, conceptual ancestor to the iPhone 7

There are few images of the top-secret map room. This one, taken at the end of WWII, shows Army Chief Warrant Officer Albert Cornelius standing before a map of Europe.

Take a Rare Look Inside FDR’s WWII Information Center: The Map Room

Long before Google Earth, this was how the president saw the world

Monument declaring Rugby, North Dakota, the city claiming geographic center—until now.

New Calculations Reposition the Geographical Center of North America

After an 90-year-reign, the title moves from Rugby, North Dakota, to the city of Center, in Oliver County

Screenshot of interactive

This Interactive Maps Out the Lives of Former Presidents

From Washington to Obama, how ex-commanders-in-chief bided their time after leaving office

The Russian Front of World War II as of 1942.

The CIA Is Celebrating Its Cartography Division’s 75th Anniversary by Sharing Declassified Maps

Decades of once-secret maps are now freely available online

A panoramic map of the 1904 World's Fair in St. Louis, MO.

The Library of Congress Is Putting Its Map Collection on the Map

A new partnership with the Digital Public Library of America will put three major LOC map collections online

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