The titles displayed below are a small selection from the history of cartography book titles available through the Map Library. Search history cartography [limited to the Map Library] in the Library’s catalog to see a fuller sampling.
All Over the Map: A Cartographic Odyssey. Betsy Mason and Greg Miller. Washington, D.C.: National Geographic, 2018.
Heavily illustrated
Around the World in 200 Globes: Stories of the Twentieth Century. Willem Jan Neutelings. Antwerp: Luster, 2024.
Heavily illustrated
Art and Cartography: Six Historical Essays. David Woodward, editor. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1987.
Cartography: the Ideal and Its History. Matthew H. Edney. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2019.
Comparative Map History and “the History of Cartography”: Methodologies, Institutions, and Idealizations. Matthew H. Edney. Leiden, Netherlands: Brill, 2025.
Decolonizing the Map: Cartography from Colony to Nation, James R. Akerman, editor. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2017.
History of Cartography. Leo Bagrow, revised and enlarged by R.A. Skelton. Chicago, Ill. : Precedent Pub., 1985.
The Image of the World: 20 Centuries of World Maps. Peter Whitfield. London: British Library, 2010.
Heavily illustrated
Mapping the Nation: History and Cartography in Nineteenth-century America. Susan Schulten. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2012.
Also available online.
Maps, Annotated: the World’s 300 Greatest Maps Explained. Smithsonian Institution. New York: DK, 2025.
Heavily illustrated
The Social Life of Maps in America, 1750-1860. Martin Brückner Williamsburg, Va.: Omohundro Institute of Early American History and Culture ; Chapel Hill: The University of North Carolina Press, 2017.
Also available online
Theater of the World: the Maps that Made History. Thomas Reinertsen Berg. New York: Little, Brown and Company, 2018.
Heavily illustrated
Treasures from the Map Room: a Journey Through the Bodleian Collections, Debbie Hall, editor. Oxford, Eng.: Bodleian Library, 2016.
Women in American Cartography: an Invisible Social History. Judith A. Tyner. Lanham, Md.: Lexington Books, 2020.
Cartobibliographies (bibliographies of maps)
Finding cartobibliographies in the Library’s catalog can be tricky! Please contact the Map Library for assistance if you are interested in this kind of resource.
Checklist of Printed Maps of the Middle West to 1900. Robert W. Karrow, Jr., general editor. Boston, Mass.: G.K. Hall, 1981-1983.
Civil War Newspaper Maps: a Cartobibliography of the Northern Daily Press. David Bosse, compiler. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 1993.
Civil War Maps: an Annotated List of Maps and Atlases in Map Collections of the Library of Congress. 2nd edition. Richard W. Stephenson, compiler. Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1989.
A List of Geographical Atlases in the Library of Congress: with Biographical Notes. Philip Lee Phillips and Clara Egli Le Gear, compilers. Washington, D.C. : U.S. Government Printing Office, 1909-1992. (9 volumes)
The Mapping of North America: a List of Printed Maps [1511-1670]. Philip D. Burden. Rickmansworth, Herts.: Raleigh Publications, 1996.
The Mapping of North America: a List of Printed Maps 1671-1700. Philip D Burden. Rickmansworth, Herts.: Raleigh Publications, 2007.
The Mapping of the World: Early Printed World Maps 1472-1700. Rodney W. Shirley. London: New Holland Publishers, 1993.
Mapping the Transmississippi West, 1540-1861. Carl I Wheat. San Francisco: Institute of Historical Cartography, 1957-1963. (5 volumes)
Maps of Africa to 1900: a Checklist of Maps in Atlases and Geographical Journals in the Collections of the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. Thomas J. Bassett and Yvette Scheven. Urbana, Ill.: Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois, 2000.
Norwich’s Maps of Africa : an Illustrated and Annotated Carto-bibliography. Oscar I. Norwich, 2nd edition revised and edited by Jeffrey C. Stone. Norwich, Vt.: Terra Nova Press, 1997.