A new way to discover history
Explore the past on an interactive map with a timeline. Search for detailed high-resolution scanned maps and see what happened in your chosen place in the past.
Engage with the timeline
Dive into history with an interactive map and a dynamic timeline. Use the timeline to explore changes in political boundaries over time. See how your place of interest looked in the past on +500,000 high-res scanned maps.
Historical context
Select a year and see the map update to show historical data relevant to that period, providing you with a quick historical context. Explore different eras, with the map reflecting the political boundaries of the chosen year. History is brought to life on the map as it also shows significant battles, notable people, and much more.
See the evolution of a place
Overlay a historical map on top of a modern map to get a perspective on how cities and areas developed over time. With our compare tool, see the transformation of landscapes and urban growth across centuries.
Community maps
Our collection is growing thanks to a passionate community of history enthusiasts. Join us and help build the largest online collection of old maps and reveal the stories they hold.
Wikipedia integration
For users who seek to dive deeper, our application offers information from relevant Wikipedia pages, providing a bridge to more extensive information and aiding further research.
Intuitive search by location
Zoom and pan on a world map, or type in a place name and instantly get a list of old maps available for the location. Use the timeline to select different years and see the map update to reflect boundaries at that time. You can sort the maps by document or content.
Browser extension
Come across a historical map on the web and want to know if you can add it? Our browser extension makes this really easy by automatically detecting maps that can be added to the OldMapsOnline collection. Simply click on the extension icon and help us increase the number of available maps in our search portal.
