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An online archive with over 83,000 vintage maps to download for free in high quality!

David Rumsey started collecting maps over 30 years ago and his collection contains over 150,000 maps from 1550 until today.

There are maps of the United States, Latin America, Asia, Africa, Europe, Oceania… the collection covers the whole world and includes atlases, globes, pocket maps, sea charts…

In 1996 he started to digitalize the whole collection using high-resolution scans. Today the David Rumsey archive offers the possibility to view and even download more than 83,000 items and the digitization work is still ongoing.

You can explore the huge collection by themes: from geographic maps to explorations, from space to oceans, from mountains to natural parks, from ethnographic to zoological ones, from aerial routes to space explorations… David Rumsey making available his collection opened the doors, to anyone with an internet connection, to an incredible amount of information and precious materials.

And there is more: the images of the maps of the David Rumsey Collection can be downloaded in high (or low) resolution. You can even buy prints! A perfect idea to decorate an empty wall!

These are the most beautiful things and the magic of the web: sharing is the greatest power we have. Open virtually the doors without fear that something will be stolen but with the knowledge that we can get a lot from sharing too: new information, new connections and new experiences.

Thank you David!