LibGuides: HIST 3776: Mapping African Migrations: Maps

Strategies for Finding Maps Using CLIO and WorldCat

You can use CLIO's features to look for maps using the library's resources.

Using the Catalog

To search for maps published in atlases and other books, type in "map OR maps" (or the equivalent terms if searching in another language), leaving All Fields selected in the drop-down search menu. Add other words to specify location, feature,etc. (like Lagos, or "Bight of Benin.")
To search for maps available in the Lehman Map Room, or digitally as individual records: instead of typing "maps" as a key word, run a search with additional terms, and then limit results by Format to Map/Globe.

The Articles Search can help us find maps largely available as digital resources, through database and other subscriptions.
Here, you can either add "Map OR Maps" to an All Fields search,
Or, you can select Map under Content Type (facet box on the left side of the results screen).

Using WorldCat

WorldCat allows us to search for maps and cartographic resources beyond Columbia's collections (as well as providiing a different view of what we have locally at Barnard and Columbia).
From the Advanced Search page, enter the search terms you'd like that may point to location, theme, etc. You may also wish to add a word like "maps" or "atlas" to the search, but it is not required.
Under the Limit Type To section, select Maps.
You may then try using Borrow Direct or Interlibrary Loan to determine if you might request delivery of specific published maps (especially atlases and other bound volumes) to a Columbia Library.

Lehman Social Sciences Library Map Collection
The Lehman Social Sciences Library Map Collection at Columbia University has various types of maps, including topographic, aeronautical, thematic, nautical, and geological maps. Most maps in the collection have corresponding catalog records in CLIO.

African Historical Maps - Jacobson Digital Africana Program
From the University of Cape Town in South Africa, this digital collection features numerous digitized images of historical maps focused on Africa
Afriterra
Offers free access to over 5000 digitized maps focused on Africa, with content spanning over 500 years of cartography, in 8 different languages, and by over 3000 unique creators.

Columbia gazetteer of the world
Though not a source of maps, this site offers valuable geographical data including names, descriptions and characteristics of over 165,000 places in the world. Includes place-names, coordinates, physical characteristics, political properties, and natural and agricultural resources.

Digital Schomburg
See the fraction of the collections that are digitized here. Relying on the expertise of distinguished curators and scholars, You can view exhibitions, books, articles, photographs, prints, audio and video streams, and selected external links for research in the history and cultures of the peoples of Africa and the African Diaspora.

Getty thesaurus of geographic names on line
Contains nearly 1 million place names representing approximately 900,000 places. Composed of names and other information contributed by several Getty projects, including the Bibliography of the History of Art (BHA), the Foundation for Documents of Architecture (FDA), the Getty Center Photo Study Collection (GCPS), and the Getty Information Institutes Vocabulary Program (VP). The TGN is the only available automated geographical resource that is hierarchical, global in scope, and targeted at researchers, catalogers, librarians, and archivists dealing with the history of art and architecture. The logical focus of a TGN record is the "place." Each place has attributes, including names, place types and coordinates. The places are arranged in hierarchies representing the current political and physical world.

Lionel Pincus and Princess Firyal Map Division/New York Public Library (NYPL)
This is one of the world's premier map collections in terms of size, scope, unique holdings, diversity and intensity of use. Established in 1898, holdings include more than 433,000 sheet maps and 20,000 books and atlases published between the 15th and 21st centuries. The collections range from the global to the local scale and support the learning and research needs of a wide variety of users.
Maps and Power in Modern African History
Assembled by Columbia Librarian Yusuf Caruso, this guide features several useful examples of print cartographic sources available at Butler, Lehman, and other Columbia Libraries.
New York Public Library, Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture
The New York Public Library's Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, located in Harlem, collects, preserves, and provides access to materials related to Black life in Africa and the African Diaspora (including the Americas). Five divisions comprise the center:

Art and Artifacts
Manuscripts, Archives, and Rare Books
Moving Image and Recorded Sound
Photographs and Prints
Research and Reference
Perry-Castañeda Library Map Collection
Based in the University of Texas-Austin, this collection features a selection of thousands of historical maps, from regions around the world, digitized. Maps are browseable by continent or country, as well as searchable across the site.