Map Links: Cartographic and Spatial Data on the Internet
There are now thousands of World Wide Web sites where you can obtain cartographic and spatial information. The following is a very partial list. It includes URLs for online maps, for downloadable geospatial data, and for sources of additional information. Most of the sites that offer GIS data are marked with a red "[GIS data]."
Name Servers (Gazetteers)
Distance Server
Some Sites with Chicago Maps or Spatial Data
- Map Collection, University of Chicago Library, scanned maps and census maps
- Chicago Data Guy (Rob Paral; data, comment, maps)
- Chicago Democracy Project (political maps and data for wards, legislative districts, and zipcodes)
- Chicago Transit Authority (CTA)
- Chicago historical ward and street files (former University of Chicago Center for Population Economics; includes historical ward and street files for Baltimore, Boston, Chicago, Cincinnati, New York, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, and Saint Louis) [GIS data]
- Chicago land use [GIS data]
- Chicago Metropolitan Agency for Planning land use inventory data set [GIS data]
- Chicago Zoning Ordinance
- City of Chicago GIS data (boundary shapefiles from the city) [GIS data]
- Dept. of Maps and Plats on-line kiosk (air photos, plat maps, structure base maps)
- EveryBlock Chicago (local data, for example for crime)
- Historical maps of Illinois and the Old Northwest (University of Illinois; includes older Illinois topos)
- Illinois county coal maps
- Illinois land cover atlas
- Illinois air photos (University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign; includes air photos of Cook and Will Counties in 1930s)
- Illinois Natural Resources Geospatial Data Clearinghouse [GIS data]
- National Historical Geographical Information System (historical tract boundaries and tract data for Chicago and rest of U.S.; University of Minnesota) [GIS data]
- Sanborn maps (digital version of classic fire insurance maps of Chicago and some other U.S. cities, 1867-1970; see note; see also Chicago Sanborn map index; Sanborn fire insurance web pages from Library of Congress; as well as older interface for Illinois Sanborns) [GIS data]
- Some Chicago GIS data (University of Chicago Map Collection) [GIS data]
- University of Chicago campus map
Somewhat Arbitrary List of Some Additional Map and Spatial-Data Sources
- Afghanistan Information Management Services (AIMS) (GIS files for Afghanistan)
- Africa: 16th-20th century maps (Northwestern University)
- Alabama maps
- American shores: maps of the Middle Atlantic region to 1850 (New York Public Library)
- ArcGIS Online (University of Chicago only) [GIS data]
- Arizona Electronic Atlas
- Atlas of Canada
- Atlas of Historical County Boundaries (Newberry Library)
- Australian GIS data and maps (Geoscience Australia) (alternative site) [GIS data]
- Boston Digital Atlas
- California Geographic Survey
- Census 2000 ESRI shapefiles [GIS data]
- China Data Center (University of Michigan)
- China historical GIS (Harvard Yenching Institute; growing body of historical GIS data and scans of paper maps; some Japanese material too) [GIS data]
- China map data (CITAS) [GIS data]
- Chizu (old Chinese maps from the Document and Information Center for Chinese Studies, University of Kyoto) [requires DjVu plug-in]
- Civil War maps (Library of Congress)
- Connecticut Map and Geographic Information Center
- Consortium for International Earth Science Information Network (CIESIN) (GIS data for Mexico, China, and elsewhere) [GIS data]
- Cornell University list of free GIS data [GIS data]
- CropScape (land use/crop data for United States; can export GIS data) [GIS data]
- David Rumsey collection (large collection of early maps)
- Digital Chart of the World (information)
- Earth Explorer (imagery and other geospatial data from USGS) [GIS data]
- Earth Observing System Data Gateway (U.S. government imagery)
- Finland historical maps
- GeoGratis (Canadian geospatial data) [GIS data]
- Geologic maps of U.S. states (generalized GIS data)
- Geospatial Engine (simple maps and some satellite imagery of the whole world)
- Global Administrative Areas (GADM) (GIS files with administrative boundaries for much of the world) [GIS data]
- Global Land Cover Facility (GLCF) (remote-sensing data)
- Great Lakes Information network
- Historic cities (Dept. of Geography, University of Jerusalem, and Jewish National and University Library; many early urban views)
- The Historic Towns Atlas program, and holdings in Regenstein Library, University of Chicago (bibliography compiled by Michael P. Conzen and Diana Rehfeldt)
- Historical GIS Clearinghouse (Association of American Geographers) [GIS data]
- Images of early maps on the Web (bibliography)
- l'Institut géographique national "Geoportal" (French topographic maps)
- IPUMS-International Project (foreign GIS census boundary files) [GIS data]
- Kentucky atlas and gazetteer
- Landsat Look (free imagery from U.S.G.S.)
- Library of Congress panoramic maps
- Longitudinal tract database (LTDB) from Brown University (historical census data in 2010 boundaries) [GIS data]
- Map history / History of cartography
- Mapping the Strait : exploring Detroit through maps and diagrams (map blog focusing on Detroit by Robert Linn)
- Mathematical data for bibliographic descriptions of cartographic materials and spatial data (Jan Smits, Koninklijke Bibliotheek)
- Michigan Geographic Data Library
- Milwaukee map (City of Milwaukee)
- Milwaukee neighborhoods, photos and maps, 1885-1992 (American Geographical Society)
- Mosaic (historical GIS boundary files for European countries) [GIS data]
- National Atlas of the United States
- National Park maps
- New York City Digital Atlas
- New York City social maps
- New York area GIS links (Regional Plan Association) [GIS data]
- New York State historic maps
- OpenStreet Map (free downloadable GIS street data for much of the world) [GIS data]
- Ordnance Survey open data [GIS data]
- Pennsylvania interactive atlas
- Pittsburgh historic map collection
- Places OnLine (Association of American Geographers)
- Russian Federation digital data
- Ryhiner Map Collection (early maps)
- San Diego State University list of map sites (includes sites for San Diego-Tijuana urban area)
- Social Explorer (census-based maps, somewhat customizable, of United States, from Queens College, CUNY)
- Stanford University index of Web sites for digital data (includes good index of state sites) [GIS data]
- SUNY Buffalo geography site (good links to other sites)
- Terra Server (Microsoft project to establish enormous world map and image atlas; includes numerous U.S.G.S. topos and orthophotomaps)
- Tiger maps: ESRI shapefiles [GIS data]
- UNESCO Atlas of the world's languages in danger
- U.S. Census Bureau American FactFinder (data for Census 2010 and 2000, including boundary files) [GIS data]
- U.S.G.S. home page
- U.S.G.S. National Geologic Map Database
- U.S.G.S Seamless Data Distribution System (for U.S.G.S. GIS data) [GIS data]
- University of Texas (CIA and other depository maps)
- University of Virginia Geospatial and Statistical Data Center
- UrbanRail.net (urban rail maps; descendent of Metro Planet)
- Washington, D.C., Digital Atlas
- Washington State early maps
- Wisconsin Land Information Clearinghouse (WISCLINC)
Map Libraries
