Alabama Maps: An Excellent Research Site That is Much More Than Just Alabama Maps Alone

One of the best map sites online for researchers is Alabama Maps. But there is much, much more there than just Alabama maps on the site. It is truly a world map collection. Alabama Maps is an ongoing project of the Cartographic Research Laboratory, which operates under the auspices of the College of Arts and Sciences at the University of Alabama. The site contains three sections: the Contemporary Map Index, the Historical Map Archive, and the Aerial Photography Index.

This site includes a digitized collection of selected map holdings from sources including the University of Alabama Map Library, the W. S. Hoole Special Collections Library, the Rucker Agee Map Collection of the Birmingham Public Library, the Geological Survey of Alabama, Samford University Special Collections Library, and the Alabama Department of Archives and History.

More than 29,095 maps are included in this online project and in the historical map collection, just for Mississippi alone, there are 232 maps including 32 maps covering the years 1812 through 1859, 36 maps covering the years 1860 to 1900 and 43 maps covering the years 1901 through 1966. Also included in the Mississippi collection are 121 detailed historic 15-minute quadrangle maps from 1921 to 1966.

In the historical collection you can view state maps, regional maps and national maps. A clickable map of the United States takes you to the various state collections and special collections on the site include the American Revolution, the Civil War, coastal navigation charts, coastal topographic sheets, the Mississippi River, the Mexican-American War, national forests, Native Americans, railroads, USDA soil survey maps and World War I.

The site is easy to navigate and contains high quality map images. Take time to discover Alabama Maps, a most excellent research resource.