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The main strength of the collection is on British printed mapping, particularly by Ordnance Survey, but the collection includes military maps, estate maps, town plans, coastal charts and county mapsĪround 2,400 historic maps, plans and drawings, particularly strong in manuscript estate and railway plans, showing the changing Scottish landscape over time. In the National Library of Scotland's 'Maps Images' resource you can access and view over 200,000 maps as high-resolution, colour, zoomable images, dating between 15.
#National grid mapping department license
For further information, see The National Map home page.Detailed street mapping, satellite imagery, terrain maps, with gazetteer search optionsĬrowdsourced mapping, with excellent, up-to-date detail and free to use under an open license In addition to topographic quadrangles, the USGS publishes many other kinds of geospatial data and imagery. The Historical Topographic Map Collection (HTMC) is a set of scanned images of USGS topographic quadrangle maps originally published as paper documents in the period 1884-2006.īoth US Topo and HTMC maps can be downloaded free of charge through several USGS interfaces. These are modeled on the legacy 7.5-minute maps, but are mass-produced from GIS databases and published as digital documents.Ģ. US Topo is the current topographic map series. Today, USGS topographic quadrangle maps are divided into two product types:ġ.
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At about the same time, a separate project was started to scan the entire historic library of traditional topographic maps. Named “US Topo,” these maps are modeled on the 7.5-minute series, but are derived from GIS data.
#National grid mapping department series
In 2009, a new USGS quadrangle topographic map series was defined. The last printed USGS topographic maps were published in 2006. Map revision continued, though in decreasing quantities, through the 1990s. The 7.5-minute series was declared complete in 1992, and at that time was the only uniform map series that covered the United States in considerable detail.
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Similar maps at varying scales were produced during the same time period for Alaska, Hawaii, and US Territories. From approximately 1947 to 1992, more than 55,000 7.5-minute maps were made to cover the 48 conterminous states.
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The best known USGS maps are the 1:24,000-scale topographic maps, also known as 7.5-minute quadrangles. The USGS was entrusted with the responsibility for mapping the country in 1879 and has been the primary civilian mapping agency of the United States ever since.
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