NOAA's Historical Collection: Over 35,000 Maps and Charts, Free to Download

A nautical chart stops being useful to sailors the day it goes out of date — and starts being useful to historians. NOAA considers any map or chart that is no longer used because it is out of date to be historical, and its Office of Coast Survey keeps a collection of more than 35,000 of them, scanned at high resolution and free to download.

A map of New York Bay and Harbor from 1845. Credit: NOAA.

What the collection holds

The collection includes some of the nation's earliest nautical charts, as well as bathymetric maps, city plans and Civil War battlefield maps. It dates back to the 1700s. The Office of Coast Survey itself was formed in 1807 as the first federal scientific agency, and it produced its first nautical charts in the mid-1830s.

Why charts matter

Nautical charts are among the most basic tools a mariner has. They show the nature and shape of the coast, the general form of the sea bottom, water depths, dangers to navigation, the locations and characteristics of human-made aids to navigation, and other features sailors need.

Maps as records of their time

Many of the maps capture events and the landscape as it was when they were drawn. One example is a map of the Chattanooga battlefield from 1863, considered one of the best Civil War maps of its time.

Digital copies of the images in the collection are free to download.

Sources

Based on "What is a historical map or chart?" from NOAA's National Ocean Service, a work of the United States government in the public domain.