"History will be kind to me for I intend to write it."
-Winston Churchill

Wednesday, July 14, 2010

The Newberry Library's Atlas of Historical County Boundaries Project

Americanists should be aware that the Newberry Library has published, electronically, a complete interactive version of its Atlas of Historical County Boundaries for the United States.

The webportal can be found at: http://publications.newberry.org/ahcbp. From the site you can choose to view a variety of historical information by state, you can choose to go directly to the interactive map site, or you can choose to download the Atlas information in one of three different formats:
GIS files for use with GIS programs / software, KMZ files for use with Google Earth / Google Maps, or PDF Map Book files which present the county maps for each state in an easily readable & printable form.

The web portal is very fast and easily navigated. It covers county backgrounds from the creation of the first county through December, 2000. The project uses primary sources as documentation for every change in county shapes, sizes, and boundaries, rather than synthesizing secondary sources. The resource is an offering of the Dr. William M. Scholl Center for American History and Culture.

-Tim Moran
President, HGSA