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Finding Historic Maps
By Ben Ellison — Spring 2006
Old charts and maps are wonderful accessories to historical cruising, and these days you can find all sorts of them online, usually in high-resolution formats-and usually free. Before our cruise, I found the famous 1650 Dutch map of the Northeast (see inset, page 58) at the Library of Congress digital map room (www.loc.gov/rr/geogmap). I also downloaded several generations of Manhattan street maps including the exquisitely detailed 1767 survey below, and the exuberant circa-1900 panoramic view of Newburgh at right. The latter actually helped us to get around Newburgh, not to mention identify old buildings and get a vivid sense of how bustling the city was back then. What's more, I found old charts of the Hudson in the historical section of NOAA's cartographic site (www.nauticalcharts.noaa.gov) and elegant, turn-of-the-century topographic maps at a site generously hosted by Maptech (www.historical.maptech.com).
It's fairly easy to find these images on the Web, but downloading them is problematic. The files are large, sometimes huge, so a fast Internet connection is mandatory. What's worse is that they are often in obscure but highly compressible formats that your normal image-viewing software won't understand. The Library of Congress site suggests several free programs able to translate these formats; of the bunch, I recommend IrfanView (www.irfanview.com).
Yes, this is all a bit of a hassle, but once properly outfitted you can collect maps to take along on a cruise or even print out for framing. After all, these maps are often cartographically beautiful and intriguing. For instance, how the heck did they draw all those Panoramics-the Library of Congress collection numbers 1,500, which may include your favorite port in full 1900 bustle-without the benefit of GPS or airplanes?
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