Photograph via snooOG

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.


We were trending on 12/15/15!

/r/oldmaps

46,269 Subscribers

250

Foreign-Born Population of the United States, 1900

15 Comments
2024/12/26
17:51 UTC

30

What do these symbols mean?

Old world globe with 9 oval circles in the ocean. Anyone know what they represent? There are lines radiating out from all around the oval on each one.

2 Comments
2024/12/24
19:58 UTC

23

Map of the country embracing the route of the expedition of 1823 commanded by Major S.H. Long (1825)[7496 x 4184]

3 Comments
2024/12/19
03:14 UTC

33

Panorama of the Mississippi Valley and its Fortifications (1863)[6965 x 6380]

0 Comments
2024/12/19
03:13 UTC

34

Tripoli–Murzuk–Lake Chad route map by Parfait-Louis Monteil (1895). Part of the Trans-Saharan trade.

3 Comments
2024/12/14
16:46 UTC

56

Indigenous Venezuelan Tree Houses, 1498

0 Comments
2024/12/09
02:14 UTC

38

Kiel, Germany by C. H. B. Klessel, 1786

3 Comments
2024/12/06
14:40 UTC

268

What city is this?

Sorry if this isn’t the correct sub to post this in but it seems to be an etching of a city but I cannot for the life of me read the name at the top. Bottom right says circa 1630. Can anyone figure out what it says? Thank you!

15 Comments
2024/12/05
02:14 UTC

29

Munster's World map from the 1575 Italian version of Cosmographia, from my collection

2 Comments
2024/12/04
22:24 UTC

18

John Speed Map of Norfolk c. 1610-12 - Does anyone know if this map was ever published exactly as is, but without colour?

4 Comments
2024/12/04
02:12 UTC

44

Mexico in 1822. Made by Henry Charles Carey.

1 Comment
2024/11/21
02:10 UTC

32

Map of Greece from the book "History of the Greek Revolution". 1832.

2 Comments
2024/11/21
02:05 UTC

12

Ptolemy, 1511 in a printing by Jacobus Pentius (Venice)

0 Comments
2024/11/19
20:23 UTC

69

World Map of Pomponius Mela, rotated for north up. From around the year 45, recreation is from 1898.

8 Comments
2024/11/18
16:40 UTC

21

Edrisi, an Arabian geographer of the 11th century, theorized that the earth is like an egg, with half plunged in water. According to him, the known world forms only a single half of the egg, which floats in the great ocean like an egg in a basin.

2 Comments
2024/11/18
16:33 UTC

11

"World cephalic index map" - Map from 1896 purportedly showing head size by region.

7 Comments
2024/11/18
15:48 UTC

0

Guess the name of this map (Medium)

6 Comments
2024/11/16
11:34 UTC

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