Research Guides: LDA-002: Place, Culture and Community: Maps & the Map Room

Print Maps in the Shields Library

Except for the USGS topographic map series, all maps in the collection are cataloged and can be found in the UC Library Search catalog.

Tips to help your search:

Use the Advanced Search and limit the material type to "Maps." This will retrieve all sheet maps and most atlases that meet your criteria.
Use the other search fields to limit your search by keywords if interested in a specific topic (e.g., soils, irrigation).
If you do not find what you want, broaden the search using a broader geographic subject (e.g., Yolo County instead of Davis).

Example search:

Start your search by selecting the option to search only through the UC Davis Library collections. This will limit your results to maps available through our Library rather than the other UC Campus Libraries (ex. UCLA Library).

Use the Advanced Search option to limit the "Material Type" to "Maps" using the drop-down menu. This will limit your search results to only include maps rather than books, films, etc.

Each print (physical) map included in your search results will have a call number listed. You will need the call number to locate the map, which will be filed in one of the drawers in our Map Room.

Schedule Map Room Appointment

Make an appointment to visit the Map Room

Digital Maps Online

California

Online Archive of California (OAC) This link opens in a new window
The OAC brings together historical materials from a variety of California institutions, including museums, historical societies, and archives. It includes searchable finding aids for collections held in these institutions as well as a large selection of scanned images and documents from these collections.

California Historic Topographic Map Collection
Special Collections at California State University, Chico’s Merriam Library has a fine collection of scanned historic topographic maps of California.

Digital Sanborn maps (California and Nevada) This link opens in a new window
Sanborn fire insurance maps, created to assist fire insurance companies assess risk, are large-scale community plans drawn at a scale of 50 feet to one inch. The maps give street names, street and sidewalk widths, property boundaries, and house and block numbers. Sanborn maps also contain data about construction details, building use and the utilities and transportation infrastructure that supported the community overall. Several editions of maps exist for some cities.
[Coverage: 1867-1970]
Fire Insurance Maps online (FIMo) - California This link opens in a new window
Fire Insurance Maps online (FIMo) is a research portal to find and view high-definition, color Fire Insurance Maps, Real Estate Atlases, Plat Books, and other historical maps showing building structures, building construction details, property ownership, property uses, and other useful information. UC Davis has licensed the maps for the state of California.

National & International

Library of Congress Digital Map Collections This link opens in a new window
Library of Congress' search tool for digital online maps. The online map collections represents only a small fraction of its total collection of maps, atlases and other cartographic materials that have been converted to digital form. Examples of online digital collections include U.S. Civil War maps, transportation and communication maps, country, city and town maps, country maps, and Sanborn maps.
Library of Congress Collections with Maps
Library of Congress Geography and Maps Reading Room
David Rumsey Map Collection Database This link opens in a new window
This historical map collection has over 75,000 maps and images online. The collection includes rare 16th through 21st century maps of America, North America, South America, Europe, Asia, Africa, Pacific and the World.