I am wanting to make a map that is a compilation of several old maps of my county, dating from 1808 until about 1920. What would be the best way to go about this?

Asked by Yellowdog (12216

) May 7th, 2020

I once had a map of my county, circa 1912. Since that time, I have acquired several old maps, and have found some in books. Even road atlases of a decade or so ago still have some of the names of old communities and their locations.

There are about 120 communities in my area, about ¼ of which are now a part of the city, and all of whose locations are still known, although not all were in existence at the same time.

What I am doing is wanting to compile all of them on one map, along with an index of what map era each are from.

I have learned that it is almost futile to draw a map freehand. And whereas I don’t need a professional, highly detailed map—I do want to include rivers (including small ones), railroads, and roads (the historic ones which are still intact)—in order to show the locations of these features. I am almost convinced that geographical coordinates are the way to go.

But how do I go about drawing such a map? Any recommended software or cartology tools and techniques?

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3 Answers

Check Topo maps Like this one
You make up clear labels on a printer to tape to map.

Tropical_Willie (31435

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I would tend to do such a think in Photoshop, or a similar program that allows re-sizing, rotating in fractional degree precision, and overlaying multiple images as layers with partial transparency.

With such a tool, you can line up landmarks that exist on each map. If you can place three locations that aren’t on the same line, and there’s no distortion, and the maps are accurate, then that should align the maps completely. If they don’t, then something’s off.

But of course, you need to choose exactly what you’re interested in showing or not showing. Each map may choose to show different details.

Have you checked out https://www.oldmapsonline.org/ ?

Zaku (30571

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@Zaku‘s advice, use Photoshop or GIMP… and use layers!
Put each and every distinct feature on its own layer. If you need to change anything (you will need to change things) then you can do that without affecting other things. That’s hard to do without using layers.

dabbler (18896

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