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Map: The Gough Map of Britain
Mapmaker: Unknown
Date: circa 1360
Scale: circa 1:1 000 000
File size: 102kb
Type: GIF
Library shelfmark: MS. Gough Gen. Top. 16
This famous map originally belonged to the antiquary Richard Gough. His collection of maps, prints, books and drawings came to the library in 1809, under the terms of his will. Richard Gough bought the map for 2/6d (12.5p!) at an auction in 1774 - the lot number is still attached to the back of the map.
Although the map is undated, clues are given by certain features, such as the town of Sheppey which changed to Queenbury in 1366, but is still Sheppey on the map, and paleographic evidence suggests the late fourteenth century. The map is drawn on two pieces of vellum and has suffered damage over the centuries. It is one of the earliest maps to depict roads (although these are depicted as straight lines linking towns) with distances. Some county names are given and features such as Hadrian's wall feature clearly.
Map: Mappa Geographica Universalis In Plano Et Figura Quadrata
Mapmaker: H. Sherer
Date: 1703
Scale: circa 1:250 000 000
File size: 229kb
Type: GIF
Library shelfmark: (E)B1 (762)
This small world map on a cylindrical projection is from Scherer's Atlas Novus. It depicts the known extent of the world, with part of New Holland (Australia) at the lower right. The Arctic and Antarctica were largely unexplored at this time.
Map: Oxonia antiqua instaurata sive urbis & academiae Oxoniensis topografica delineatio olim a Radulpho Agas impressa
A.D. 1578 nunc denuo aeri incisa A.D. MDCCXXII
Mapmaker: Ralph Agas
Date: 1578
Scale: Bird's-eye view
File size: 478kb
Type: GIF
Library shelfmark: Gough Maps Oxfordshire 4
This extract is from a bird's eye view of Oxford looking from the north, originally drawn by Ralph Agas in 1578. The original map has now darkened with age, but it has been reproduced several times and this copy was engraved by W. Williams in 1732. It depicts streets and buildings pictorially - High Street runs from left to right with St Mary's Church at the centre. Lower centre are the Divinty School and the University Schools - now part of the Old Bodleian. At lower right can be seen the city wall with the North Gate just visible at the right. The New Bodleian occupies a site just out of view at the bottom of the image.
Map: [Oxford] Inset on Oxfordshire described with ye Citie and the Armes of the Colledges of yt famous University.
Mapmaker: John Speed
Date: 1605
Scale: Bird's-eye view
File size: 91kb
Type: GIF
Library shelfmark: (E)C17:49 (116)
John Speed compiled a set of maps depicting the counties of Great Britain between 1596 and 1610, borrowing heavily from earlier work, including Christopher Saxton and others (his Address to the Reader admits ..."I have put my sickle into other men's corn..."). The style of his Oxford map is similar to the earlier map by Ralph Agas. The set of county maps was published as an atlas, titled The Theatre of the Empire of Great Britain, dated 1611. The library has several editions of Speed's atlases and maps, both coloured and uncoloured.
Map: Oxfordshire
Mapmaker: P. Martin
Date: circa 1810
Scale: circa 1:800 000
File size: 155kb
Type: GIF
Library shelfmark: (E)C17:49 (51)
This postcard-sized map of Oxfordshire (it measures just 14cm x 10cm) shows towns and villages, together with the mail coach roads and turnpikes. The distance from London is given for the principal towns, and small stars indicate the number of MPs returned to parliament.
Map: The Isles of Montreal as they have been survey'd by the French engineers
Mapmaker: Thomas Kitchin?
Date: circa 1760
Scale: circa 1:175 000
File size: 541kb
Type: GIF
Library shelfmark: (E)F4:21 (25)
In 1760, the remaining French troops defending Montreal surrendered to the British. This marked the end of the Seven Years War which began when British traders became concerned about the expansion of French froeign trade. The maker of this map is presumed to be Thomas Kitchin, who appears to have copied it from a French map. The map shows the settlement of Montreal with its harbour. The original site is now buried beneath the modern streets which extend out beyond La Chine (Lachine) and up the slopes of The Mountain (Mount Royal).
Map: Ordnance Survey Oxford District (Cover)
Artist: Arthur Palmer
Date: 1921
Scale: 1:63 360
File size: 100kb
Type: GIF
Library shelfmark: OS Map Covers
In recent years interest has grown in a previously neglected area of cartography - map covers - especially the Ordnance Survey products. Early Ordnance Survey maps were printed with plain utilitarian covers, which did little to help sales to the public. The Ordnance Survey were primarily concerned with mapping - marketing was not considered their concern. Eventually sluggish sales, along with pressure from retailers, prompted a change of attitude. Arthur Palmer joined the Ordnance Survey in 1891 and together with another artist, Ellis Martin, created a number of map covers, of which this is a good example. The library has a comprehensive collection of map covers and missing examples are being acquired to complete the series.
Map: A plan of Boston and its environs shewing(sic) the true situation of his Majesty's army and also those of the rebels
Mapmaker: Richard Williams
Date: 1775, published 1776
Scale: circa 1:15 000
File size: 248kb
Type: GIF
Library shelfmark: (E)F6:60 Boston (1)
At the time this map was drawn by the young lieutenant Richard Williams, Sir William Howe held the town of Boston, but the rebel troops surrounded the town. On June 17th, Howe led his troops out to attack the rebels, watched by scores of civilians and loyalists. Howe's troops advanced towards redoubts dug by the rebels, from where a barrage of gunfire decimated the British soldiers. Known as the Battle of Bunker's Hill, it was a massive defeat for the British and Boston was evacuated the following year. Lieutenant Williams returned sick to England in 1776 and died later the same year. The extract displayed shows the town of Boston with Charlestown at the top right.
Map: Plan of the Town of Salem [Inset on] A map of the counties of Salem and Gloucester, New Jersey
Mapmaker: A. C. Stanabie
Date: 1849
Scale: circa 1:10 000
File size: 343kb
Type: GIF
Library shelfmark: (E)F6:38 (1)
This plan of Salem, NJ is a good example of mid nineteenth-century town mapping. It is an inset on a larger map of the two counties. The town changed from Salem Township to Salem in 1858.
Map: Town plan of Oxford
Mapmaker: Ordnance Survey
Date: 1878
Scale: 1:500
File size: 142kb
Type: GIF
Library shelfmark: C17:70 Oxford (56)
In the mid-nineteenth century, the Public Health Act and the First Report of the Commissioners for Inquiring into the State of Large Towns and Populous Districts prompted a demand for large-scale detailed town plans. This example is from the 1878 survey of Oxford. The first plans were surveyed at a scale of 1:1 056 (five feet to one mile) but a larger scale was required and surveys at 1:528 (ten feet to one mile) and later 1:500 scale were carried out. The extreme detail of these plans is evident, with internal staircases and other features faithfully recorded and individual trees and flower beds accurately plotted. Some of these plans were revised later in the century, but the high cost involved discouraged further work.
Map: Schlavoniae, Croatiae, Carniae, Istriae, Bosniae, finitimarumque regionum nova, descriptio, auctore Augustino
Hirsvogelio
Mapmaker: Abraham Ortelius
Date: circa 1575
Scale: circa 1:675 000
File size: 237kb
Type: GIF
Library shelfmark: (E) C10(234)
This early map of the northern part of the former Yugoslavia was published as part of Ortelius' atlas and shows the characteristic cartographic style of the period. At the top is Aaram (Zagreb), with the River Sauus (Sava) below.At the lower left is Istria and Gradiska can be seen at the right. Maps of this period depicted rivers, towns and mountain ranges - roads did not feature, although major river crossings were sometimes shown.
Map: Sir John Evelyn's Plan for Rebuilding the City of London, after the Great Fire in the year 1666
Mapmaker: John Evelyn
Date: 1666 (published 1785)
Scale: circa 1:675 000
File size: 237kb
Type: GIF
Library shelfmark: (E)C17:70 London 1165
Following the Great Fire of London in 1666, Christopher Wren and others submitted proposals for the rebuilding of the City. This is Sir John Evelyn's idea, with a grid pattern of streets, together with intersecting links to surviving public buildings and churches. St Pauls is at the centre, and roads radiate out from the Fleet Conduit (numbered 2 on the plan) at the left. To the right is The Tower of London (31).
Map: Plan of the London Docks
Mapmaker: Henry R. Palmer
Date: 1831
Scale: 1:5 280
File size: 344kb
Type: GIF
Library shelfmark: (E)C17:70 London (10)
The first commercial docks in London were opened in 1802 and London Docks, shown on this plan, in 1805. The plan shows the dock area, dominated by the Western Dock. This is surrounded warehouses, including tobacco warehouses, which stand each side of Tobacco Dock. The London and St. Katherine's Docks (to the west) enclosed 18.5 hectares of water, with four miles of quays. The tobacco warehouses were used to store imported tobacco - the traders paid the duty only when the tobacco was removed. From the 1960s, the docks gradually closed, mainly because modern container ships require deep water, available downstream at Tilbury. In 1981 the London Docklands Development Corporation was set up to redevelop the area and News International now occupies the site, together with a sports centre and new housing.
Map: A Plan of a Navigable Canal Intended for Communication between the Ports of Liverpool and Hull.
Mapmaker: Unknown
Date: [1776]
Scale: ca 1:750 000
File size: 307kb
Type: GIF
Library shelfmark: (E)C17:1 (10)
The eighteenth century saw a boom in canal building in Britain. Typical of the many canals was the Trent and Mersey Canal, built to link the two rivers. The map shows the canal network already in place around Manchester and Macclesfield, including one of the earliest canals, built by the Duke of Bridgewater to carry coal from his mines at Worsley. An interesting feature of the map is the compass rose, with its ornate north pointer, but still featuring a cross pointing to the east. This harks back to the early tradition of having east at the top of the map (hence the term "orienting" a map)
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. Map: Description of a customary Messuage or Tenement lyinge by the Names within written in the Parish of Great Bursteed.
. . .
Mapmaker: John Coffyn
Date: 1699
Scale: ca 1:2 970
File size: 570kb
Type: GIF
Library shelfmark: (MS) C17:28 (39)
This small (30 cm x 19 cm) map of a farm in the parish of Great Burstead, near Billericay in Essex, is a good example of a late 17th century estate map. It is an original mansucript map, and shows field names, with their areas in old English land measurements of acres, roods and poles. The field names are typically descriptive, with Home Feild (sic) behind the house at the top left and Further Feild (sic) at right. Later annotations have been made to the map in pencil.
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Map: A map of Grindle (Shropshire)
Mapmaker: Unknown
Date: ca 1630
Scale: -
File size: 428kb
Type: GIF
Library shelfmark: (MS) C17:53 (9)
Estate maps are a rich source of contemporary life, as this extract from a map by an unknown cartographer shows. The quaint drawings of forges and charcoal burners show that this area was involved in the early iron industry which flourished in Shropshire from the 17th century. The water-powered forges worked pig iron which was brought from the ironworks. Charcoal was used in the forges as coal had impurities which weakened the iron, so charcoal-burning was an important local industry. Much of the surviving woodland in this area was originally planted to supply the forges.
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Map: Iarsey (Jersey)
Mapmaker: G. Mercator
Date:1639
Scale: ca 1:130 000
File size: 362kb
Type: GIF
Library shelfmark: (E) C17 (369)
This small map of Jersey is one of four island maps on a single sheet. The map first appeared in the Mercator-Hondius atlas, and as Mercator died in 1594 the map was probably engraved before he died. The detail is typical of the period, with the pictorial representation of hills, symbols for towns and a lack of roads.
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Map: A Map of the United States of America, with part of the adjoining Provinces from the latest authorities.
Mapmaker: Unknown
Date: ca 1800
Scale: ca 1:10 000 000
File size: 620kb
Type: GIF
Library shelfmark:(E) F6:6 (5)
The map of the United States was constantly changing during this period, as new states were added. Althought the map is undated, Tenessee is shown (which joined in 1796), but not Ohio (1803). Louisiana also joined in 1803. Note the description of the Great Plains as "extensive meadows"!
Map: (Part of ) Virginia Discovered and Discribed (sic) by Captayn John Smith.
Mapmaker: John Smith
Date: ca 1612
Scale: ca 1:300 000
File size: 630kb
Type: GIF
Library shelfmark: (E) F6:54 (39)
This famous map of Virginia by John Smith shows his explorative journeys from Jamestown. Unusually oriented with west at the top, it includes a vignette of Powhatan. The wealth of detail included on the map made it the standard map of the Chesapeake Bay area.
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