Geography

Earthworks is Stanford University Library's portal for discovery and distribution of geospatial data. Earthworks provides federated search of more than a dozen other research collections and direct access to data for download. Earthworks currently contains records for over 72,000 spatial datasets and cartographic resources, with over 58,000 of those freely available under permissive licensing.

The Geographic Names Information System (GNIS) is the Federal and national standard for geographic nomenclature. The U.S. Geological Survey developed the GNIS in support of the U.S. Board on Geographic Names as the official repository of domestic geographic names data, the official vehicle for geographic names use by all departments of the Federal Government, and the source for applying geographic names to Federal electronic and printed products. The GNIS contains information about physical and cultural geographic features of all types in the United States, associated areas, and Antarctica, current and historical, but not including roads and highways. The database holds the Federally recognized name of each feature and defines the feature location by state, county, USGS topographic map, and geographic coordinates. Other attributes include names or spellings other than the official name, feature designations, feature classification, historical and descriptive information, and for some categories the geometric boundaries.

Harvard University's collection of digitized maps. Strengths of the collection include: 18th-century maps of North America and Europe in print and manuscript, Early modern maps and atlases, Pictorial maps, and 19th- and 20th-century Topographical maps.

Maps and aeronautical charts, circa 1807-1960.
A specialized site as useful to history as it is to geography: "Office of Coast Survey's Historical Map & Chart Collection covers the land and waters of the United States of America, including territories and possessions (past and present). The Office of Coast Survey traces its charting efforts back to 1807, when President Thomas Jefferson founded the Survey of the Coast. To celebrate and preserve this long history, NOAA started assembling the collection in 1995 as a data rescue effort. NOAA continues to preserve charts and maps produced by NOAA's Coast Survey and its predecessors, especially the U.S. Coast and Geodetic Survey and the U.S. Lake Survey (previously under the Department of War). The collection also covers many areas that most people may not realize were once a part of early Coast Survey history. As the first federal scientific agency, the U.S. Coast and Geodetic Survey (as the agency was known from 1878 to 1970) produced land sketches, Civil War battle maps, and aeronautical charting from the 1930s to the 1950s."

"The HTL series of 50 state gazetteers provide boundary maps, demographic data, local photos, and school information for 317,694 neighborhoods, cities, towns, counties, ZIP Codes, and Census Designated Places (CDPs)."

A collection of primary map resources from the Library of Congress. Includes digital copies of thousands of historical and contemporary maps of the world.

The Geospatial Commons is a one-stop catalog for Minnesota featuring open data which can be added to your maps and research projects.

As one of the cornerstones of the U.S. Geological Survey's (USGS) National Geospatial Program, The National Map is a collaborative effort among the USGS and other Federal, State, and local partners to improve and deliver topographic information for the Nation. It has many uses ranging from recreation to scientific analysis to emergency response.

View, download, and create custom nautical charts, brought to you by the NOAA.

OldMapsOnline developed out of a love of history and heritage of old maps. OldMapsOnline.org indexes over 400.000 maps. This is only thanks to the archives and libraries that were open to the idea and provided their online content. All new participants are warmly welcomed.

"The UN Atlas of the Oceans is an Internet portal providing information relevant to the sustainable development of the oceans. It is designed for policy-makers who need to become familiar with ocean issues and for scientists, students and resource managers who need access to databases and approaches to sustainability. The UN Atlas can also provide the ocean industry and stakeholders with pertinent information on ocean matters."

Includes maps created and maintained by the United Nations including peacekeeping and peacebuilding maps, UN mission maps, and general maps.

UT Libraries' collection of geospatial data. Within the resource you will find a wide variety of data types available for download including georeferenced scanned maps from the Perry-Castañeda Library Map Collection, vector datasets developed from collections in the Alexander Architectural Archives, geospatial data from the Benson Latin American Collection, and more. These datasets represent just some of the geospatial resources found in the UT Libraries’ collections. Additional datasets will continue to be added to this portal as they are processed.

A comprehensive, yet easy to use USGS locator for historical topographical maps.

"Worldmapper is a collection of world maps called cartograms, where territories are resized on each map according to the subject of interest. Our range of maps is continuously extended and updated. Explore the world as you’ve never seen it before!"