The Map Room

Introduction

In my many years of teaching European history at the university level, I used long-neglected roll-down maps to illustrate almost every lecture.  They serve as a ready reference during the lecture, one that does not require that I dim the lights or search for a PowerPoint slide.  Furthermore, I can compare two or more maps, without flipping back and forth between projected images or shrinking digitized images.  In my possession are more than 120 such maps, most of which I inherited from past university instructors.  Some maps are damaged from years of use, and others have deteriorated with age.  Nevertheless, they help tell the story of human existence and play an important role in the classroom instruction.  Not only do they allow the lecturer to illustrate a border or show where an event took place, they even can assume the role of a teacher when the student, bleary-eyed from the professor's incessant drone, stares at the colorful fleeting wall decoration.  Perhaps, in years to come, the recollection of the professor will fade, but the image of the map will remain burned into the memory of the one-time student.

During the coronavirus pandemic of 2020, I moved to online instruction.  As part of the transition, I inaugurated a project long in the conceptual stage: to photograph my roll-down maps to create images suitable for classroom instruction.  The images below represent my progress on the project.

Notes on the Maps and Their Order of Appearance

In each section, the maps appear roughly in chronological order, and maps for specific regions and countries appear after the chronological list.  Sometimes one roll-down map contains two or more maps of different time periods and locations, but they appear here with the general category earliest date.  Map inserts appear as indented entries after the map group title and may or may not appear with the image of the main map.  Distance scales may not be accurate in legends that are separate from maps.  Some map details are simply closeups of a specific map (for example, see the subcategories for "Europe--Geographical Features").  In most cases, the images are high resolution, so it is possible to magnify them, without them appearing too grainy.  As a result of the publishers' assembly of the roll-down maps and the detailed images I made for some maps, it may be necessary to peruse the entire list to better comprehend what maps are available. Categories in bold contain links to map images, while categories without bold titles contain no active links.  This collection of map images is incomplete.  Since I own more than 120 roll-down maps, it will take some time for me to photograph and post all them.  Eventually, I will include other types of wall maps I have acquired.  I also will provide a list of publication information in the future.  The priority was to post the maps that are most useful for the courses I teach regularly.


I     MISCELLANEOUS AND WORLD MAPS

The Age of Exploration--The World in 1492

The Expansion of Islam--Byzantium and Western Asia

Partition of Africa to 1935 (This map is of poor quality, but I posted it temporarily.)

III   ASIA




Decline of Colonialism in Asia



IV    NORTH AMERICA AND AMERICA

US Population Development, 1790, with Immigration Statistics
US Population Development, 1840, with Urban and Rural Statistics
US Population, 1890, with Total Population

US Population Development, 1940

V     COLONIAL AMERICA

VI    FLORIDA

VII   LATIN AMERICA

VIII  EUROPE

Europe--Geographical Features--Legend III
Europe--Geographical Features--Legend IV
Europe--Geographical Features--The Straits




Later Mediterranean Cultures

Charlemagne--Europe in 565
Charlemagne--Europe in 568
Charlemagne--Treaty of Verdun, 843

Holy Roman Empire
Holy Roman Empire--The Growth of Christianity to 1400
Holy Roman Empire--London in approximately 1300
Holy Roman Empire--Rome in the Middle Ages and Renaissance
Holy Roman Empire--Tenth and Eleventh Centuries

Christian Europe and the Crusades

Europe in the Middle Ages

Medieval Europe
Medieval Europe--Industry and Commerce
Medieval Europe--The Low Countries

Xi    RENAISSANCE AND REFORMATION

Europe in 1360--The Swiss Confederation

Charles V--Possessions between 1519 and 1556

XII  MODERN EUROPE, 1618-1914





Europe after 1815
Europe after 1815--Siege of Sevastopol


Balkans
Balkans, 1683-1877
Balkans, 1878-1914

XIII MODERN EUROPE SINCE 1914


First World War, 1914-1918

First World War in Europe
First World War in Europe--Legend
First World War in Europe-Western Front, 1914-1919

Central Europe, 1918-1922--Germany
Central Europe, 1918-1922--Poland and USSR

Europe in 1924
Europe in 1924--League of Nations

Europe, 1918-1928






England


Russia
Russia, 1462-1914
Russia, 1914-1939

Soviet Union in 1964

Rev. 7.VIII.2020