/r/oldmaps
Beautiful and illuminating maps from around the world, from the oldest examples known to those created around 1950.
Welcome!
We're interested in sharing interesting, beautiful or informative examples of the cartographer's trade, from their emergence in the ancient Near East up to a somewhat arbitrary end-date of 1950 A.D.
We'll happily accept historical maps! If you're posting a map, please provide a description and date in the title.
Related Subreddits
r/Maps - If you're interested in maps and cartography generally (or modern maps specifically).
r/MapPorn - For gorgeous wallpaper-size maps of all descriptions.
r/Geography - If you're curious about the geography that informed historic mapmapkers.
r/ArtHistory - For background on the artistic styles that influenced mapmakers through history.
r/History and r/MedievalHistory - For historical background.
r/MapMaking - If you're getting the feeling you'd like to try your hand at cartography.
r/Vexillology - If you're interested in more ways people symbolically stake out territory. For everything you need to know about flags.
r/ImaginaryMaps - For maps from fictional stories, books, films, television programs, video games, and comics.
r/WorldBuilding - For sharing your worlds and discussing the many aspects of creating new universes.
r/OldNews - For news that isn't new. News from history, news from the past.
r/Gis - For the technical side of cartography and geography.
r/PaperTowns - For well-crafted pictorial maps, detailed panoramic cityscapes, broad aerial vistas, intricate bird's-eye views and even full 3D reconstructions.
/r/oldmaps
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Does anyone know why this map of the East Indies (1729) has "Part of India" labelled over Siam?
19:12 UTC
Map of Europe by the Portuguese Fernão Vaz Dourado in 1580.
02:31 UTC
World Map. Drawn by Nicolas Desliens in 1566. (Original map is upside-down to modern day viewers, this image is flipped vertically.)
02:26 UTC
Joint work between Italien jesuit and chinese scholar, back in 1602
22:49 UTC
Bankoku jinbutsu no zu / People of many nations - Japanese map of the world with inset images of foreign people. Created between 1800 and 1850.
05:07 UTC
"A Map of the World" Japanese print shows a map of the world with sailing ships on the seas and American and Russian soldiers. Created between 1850-1900.
05:05 UTC
Found at a local church thrift, "Nova Totius Terrarum Orbis Geographica AC Hydrographica Tabula"
23:29 UTC
Can anyone help identify this map?
I came across this map I am not sure when it was created and who the cartographer was. I believe it shows China and the language is Japanese?
12:59 UTC
"A new map of the United States with the addiional [i.e., additional] territories on an improved plan exhibiting a view of the Rocky Mountains surveyed by a company of Winebago [i.e., Winnebago] Indians in 1828"
14:14 UTC
"Europa Prima Pars Terrae in Forma Virginis" / "Europe, the first part of the earth in the form of a virgin." 1581.
14:10 UTC
"Asia Seunda Pars Terrae in Forma Pegasi" - Map of Asia by Heinrich Bunting, 1581
14:05 UTC
Russian Map of Beringia from 1802.
04:57 UTC
Map of Greenland with series of ten small engravings of whale, walrus, and bear hunting. England, 1744.
04:51 UTC
“A General Map of Bible Lands: Combining Places Prominent in Both Old and New Testaments” - Map from Nashville, Tennessee, 1913.
03:39 UTC
Can anyone identify this map?
Map on a neck pillow bought in New Zealand ~10 years ago. Note details of James Cooks voyage in top left of map.
05:11 UTC
"The situation of [the] kingdoms and states [of Europe]" US, 1784. A strange map.
19:00 UTC
A New and Accurate Map of the Empire of Japan. London, 1747.
05:03 UTC
When is this from id say roughly 1700 but idk
21:33 UTC
"Die gantse Welt" / "The whole World" - German map of the world. Circa 1675.
14:07 UTC
"An Exact Mapp of New England and New York" Map from London, circa 1700. Note the spelling of the word "map" as "mapp", an earlier spelling variation used until around the 1600s.
07:40 UTC
Map of the Middle East and South Asia. From Transylvania, 1542.
07:32 UTC
"Persia according to the newest and most exact observations" Map from England, circa 1717.
03:29 UTC
"Illustration of the Great European War" Japan, World War 1 map from circa 1914.
19:09 UTC
"A map of America according to ye newest and most exact observations" - Map made by Herman Mull, possibly a German, who came to England; note "tropic spelled as "tropick". Also of note is the Island of California, a common global misconception that California was an island. 1717.
16:59 UTC
"Map of the World" - Qazwīnī, Zakarīyā ibn Muḥammad. In the center of the map is Mecca; the ocean is located on each side along the outer edge of the sheet with the pillars of the earth in the four corners. Great emphasis is placed on Africa and the Nile River. 1500s.
15:14 UTC
"The Geographical Position of Mu" 1938.
08:10 UTC
1908 Wayne Hotel Pictorial Map of Detroit
13:49 UTC