The Map Library

Maybe it’s the traveler in me or the eagle scout, but I could look at old maps all day long…which is exactly what I have been doing thanks to The Mary B. Ansari Map Library at the University of Nevada, Reno! It has over 140,000 maps and is the largest collection in Nevada. I don’t know if all of them are on there, but someone has put a lot of the maps online here and I have been having a great time pouring over them. They really are little pieces of art.

United States Department of the Interior Geological Survey for Reno, NV (made in 1893, reprinted in 1945) from the Mary B. Ansari Map Library at the University of Nevada, Reno.

Map detail

It’s hard to believe nowadays that these were hand drawn. The designer in me is both fascinated and terrified at the same time. I love how the water is drawn.

Elmer J. Chute's map of the Goldfield Mining District (1907) from the Mary B. Ansari Map Library at the University of Nevada, Reno.

This map of Goldfield mining claims is friggin awesome. Loving the colors.

Map detail

The typography on these is just as interesting to me as the maps. Can’t get enough of that capital G and the serifs.

Map detail

Reno (1868) from the Mary B. Ansari Map Library at the University of Nevada, Reno courtesy of the Nevada Historical Society.

Woodside-Eureka Mining Co. (ca. 1900) from the Mary B. Ansari Map Library at the University of Nevada, Reno.

Degroot's Map of Nevada Territory (1863) from the Mary B. Ansari Map Library at the University of Nevada, Reno.

This is probably my favorite. My dad was a draftsman and it reminds me of the stacks of  blueprints in his office. I think maps in general remind me of him.

Map detail

I have died and gone to typography heaven.

WE NEED MORE OF THIS! We need more of our history online! Our university’s special collections departments need to follow that The Library of Congress is setting with it’s flickr pages, making pieces of our history so easy to access. Maybe they are already doing this, and if you know of any other digital archive pertaining to Nevada and it’s history, please let me know.

Once again, you can check out the collection here, or a check out their collection of Nevada History in Maps which is a little bit easier to work through