Old Maps Online

[Matthew Hurwitz]

https://www.oldmapsonline.org/

This website is a great resource for finding maps from across the centures of different parts of the world. Typing in a specific country or region and a date range will give you a variety of historical maps drawn by people from different parts of the world of a particular place. In my own teaching of World History, one of the hardest things for students to do is to visualize the historical events that they are studying in countries that are thousands of miles away and which take place hundreds of years ago. Maps are a great visual resource to help orient students to the events taking place in a country, orient them to what part of the world the country is in, and understand the unique geographic features of a region that all play a role in impacting historical events. 

In addition to providing a great visual, this map archive is easy to search and allows you to zoom in and zoom out on the maps,  giving students a chance to do some critical thinking and analysis around sourcing and perspective, comparing and contrasting how different people in different countries in different years draw and label the same country. What language is the map in? What names are given to the various cities, rivers, and oceans around that country on the different maps? How is power and influence conveyed on the map? And how is the way the map is drawn tied in with the person/country drawing it? Having students do a data dig activity on mapping would be a great way to both engage students who are gifted with high level concept questions, and engage students who maybe struggle with primary source readings, but do well with primary source visuals in a group activity where they can all analyze and discuss important questions together.

Since maps are a great tool to use for every unit and topic, this website and the maps on it are a great source of primary source information that would complement primary source readings on East Asia or whatever region is being studied. Given that maps can be used to show so much information over huge chunks of time, it's a great source of activities for all units, from Imperialism to Industrialization, Modernization and The Cold War.

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