This page highlights Artstor content related to the study of maps and geography, which includes depictions of the physical terrain of geographic regions from a variety of historical periods.
Image credit: Georg Braun and Frans Hogenberg. Map of Alexandria. 1575. Image and original data courtesy the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Artstor’s maps and geography content is sourced from museums and archives such as:
Artstor's Education and Content teams curate groups of images in a number of disciplines. The below image groups are available related to maps and geography:
You can save these groups as your own and modify them by opening a group, logging in to your registered Artstor account, selecting "Organize" from the top menu, and then "Save image group as..." To add or remove images, open your copy of the group and begin editing.
Browse by classification for Maps, Charts and Graphs and then narrow by country name.
Browse by classification for Architecture and City Planning, then conduct a keyword search for map or plan within the results to find city maps or site plans.
Keyword search for terms such as map, plan, or chart.
**Remember that geography in Artstor refers to the creator's country of origin, with the exception of architectural works. Searching for maps and filtering your results by country will not necessarily yield all works from that location. Instead, try entering the name of the location as part of your keyword search, for example: "London map."
Try these sample search terms to find images related to maps and geography. Don't forget to use the search filters to narrow your results.
Scala Archives photographed the Galleria delle Carte Geografiche in the Vatican Palace, which takes its name from the 40 geographic murals representing the regions of Italy and islands of the Mediterranean that adorn its walls. Commissioned by Pope Gregory XIII, the corridor was built and decorated between 1580–1583 under the supervision of Ignazio Danti (1536–1586), a Dominican friar, mathematician, and cartographer. The map frescoes are monumental in scale (approximately 3 x 4 m) and exceedingly rich in detail — each map includes a scale, wind rose, coordinates, and cartouches that describe each territory and its history. There are also plans of major cities in each region, painted as trompe l’oeil maps on top of the main mural, as well as historical vignettes painted directly into the topography. Given the size of the murals, the maps are not easily examined by visitors in situ, but scholars and students may closely study the Scala images with Artstor’s zooming feature.