NavList:

   

Reply

NOAA has a large collection of historic American nautical and
aeronautical charts scanned at high resolution. They can be viewed
online or downloaded.

https://historicalcharts.noaa.gov/

Topographic maps in the US have been the responsibility of another
agency, the US Geological Survey. They too have an archive of historic maps:

https://www.usgs.gov/core-science-systems/national-geospatial-program/topographic-maps

Your search can specify the desired scale, but if you choose 1:24000
that excludes most of the old stuff, which was generally at smaller scale.

The modern equivalent is "US Topo." These are separate quadrangles, just
like the legacy paper maps. However, the publication cycle is much more
frequent. They are not as artistic as the old topos, which were
handmade. That shows especially in the lettering. Automation does not
equal human judgement in that respect.

One bonus is the orthophotograph included in the US Topo PDF. This is an
aerial photograph which has been rectified to make the image coincide
with the map projection. In other words, it's not the perspective view
recorded by the camera. Depending on your PDF viewer the presence of the
orthophoto may not be obvious. You have to select it from the list of
"layers."

If you just need to view the most recent map online, the seamless
National Map is most convenient, especially if your point of interest is
near a quadrangle boundary. Both the National Map and US Topo are
accessible from the above link.

   

Reply