A small, Christmas update: approx. 130 small-scale US maps dated 1942
- 1953. Originally most sheets were produced by the OSS
(Office of Strategic Services) and Department of State, and from 1947
onwards, by CIA. The maps are mainly related to strategic and
geopolitical events unfolding in Central and Eastern Europe. It is a
rather subjective selection, including some, somewhat unusual in 2020,
like a series of maps of the USSR showing areas "off-limits" to
foreigners (by the look of it, about 90%). The recurring motif is,
naturally, cold-come-hot war, sometimes only hovering in the wings, elsewhere, displayed
bluntly. 600 dpi scans
come from the University of Stanford, California, libraries, while 300
dpi from the US National Archives and Records Administration (NARA)
A certain... "supplement" is a set of 9 sheets, one-colour
reproduction of WIG 1:300,000 maps. This "edition" comes
from
1946 r. in the US Department of State, and they show a new, "eastern
boundary of Poland" with the USSR.
nowy_update
From the collection of Berkeley
Library, University of California we have added sheets from four
map series:
1. Grossblatt / Einheitsblatt (approx. 330
sheets)
2. Umgebungskarte Norwegen (1:25,000 and
1:50,000) - approx. 50 sheets
For better orientation, the list of maps of Norway includes, at the
bottom, a few German index sheets dated 1941 and 1944
3. Topographische Karte (Messtischblatt),
1:25,000, approx. 1500 sheets from East Germany and occupied
Poland:
- approx. 800 sheets by the Reichsamt für Landesaufnahme, including 45
coloured sheets (mehrfarbig)
- approx. 150 arkuszy "Planblatt A" (Geheim), from the areas covered by
German fortification lines. Please note, this edition does NOT show
actual fortifications!
- approx. 400 sheets of the military edition (Deutsche Heereskarte),
dated 1944 and 1945
- approx. 50 wydań Königliche Preussische Landesaufnahme, by 1917
- approx. 100 reprinted sheets (often with changed place-names, mostly
from the area of the so-called Polish corridor, printed in August 1944
by stellvertr. Generalkommando XX. A.K., Abtlg. Ia Mess/Mil.-Geo. Danzig
A few comments: when downloading town plans sourced from digital
libraries it
is not recommend
to rely on resolution information presented in file metadata. Usual,
the actual resolution is much higher than declared. Moreover (this
applies particularly to digital libraries in Poland), high compression
rate used by those libraries means that even high-resolution files can
be very poor quality images. Unfortunately, there's no rhyme or reason,
i.e. some files from one library can be excellent, while others - from
the very same library - are very poor.
And for those disappointed with lack of new (historical) maps... well,
take a look at links below: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6
The files in the links above can be downloaded, but not from the actual
zoomable window but from the file list at the bottom of those pages.
Scans are only 300 dpi, but very well scanned.
Other German maps scanned and recently made available by the Berkeley
Library (University of California) can be found here. The
Library will scan and add new files, but specific dates are unknown, in
one word - covid.
test
Our friends in Lihuania helped us scan a collection of approx.
90
Lithuanian pre-WW2 1:25,000 maps (Lietuvos žemėlapis 1:25 000)dated 1928 - 1940.
As we don't have our own index sheet for this map type, the maps are
available as a list.
You will find two original index sheets, a pre-WW2 Lithuanian one, and
a post-WW2 US one - both can be found at the bottom of the
abovementioned list.
There are more scans from the State Archive in Poznan, Poland:
- over 40 sheets of the Operational Map of Poland - Mapa Operacyjna WIG - 1:300,000
- 190 sheets of the German Overview Map of Central Europe - Übersichtskarte von Mitteleuropa, 1:300,000
- ok. 130 sheets of the German WW2 reprints and variants of the
Detailed Map of Poland 1:25,000 - Mapa
Szczegolowa Polski
- approx. 270 original sheets, i.e. Polish editions of the Detailed Map
of Poland 1:25,000 - Mapa Szczegolowa Polski
Practially all new sheets of the 1:300,000 and 1:25,000 maps have
already been available on the server, however new scans are better
quality (better scanner), all at 600 dpi. Additionally, some sheets of
the 1:25,000 maps show extra, hand-drawn information, e.g. flooded
areas (Hochwasser), related to the major flooding that occured in
Poland in spring 1940, after unusually severe winter of 1939/40.
1
There has been a period since beginning of this year, when the English
page of the
mapywig.orgg has not been updated at all, while, in the meantime, we
have
added quite a few new maps. So, to catch up...
3. Literature
- also from the collection of the Library of Congress:
- a few editions of the MITTEILUNGEN des Reichsamt für Landesaufnahme
dated 1939 - 1943.
- a few brochures dated 1943/44, prepared for the eventuality of
Allied's invation / landing in the Balkans (Yugoslavia and Albnia),
- „Militärgeographische Angaben über Finnland” dated 1941, already
mentioned above
5. From McMaster University, Canada,
jointly scanned by The University of Alberta,
and originally most sheets from the collection of prof. Bogdan
Zaborski. Some more information about him - in Polish) can be found in
this PDF,
courtesy of the przez Faculty of Geography and Regional Studies,
University of Warsaw.
- approx.
400 sheets of the Topographische Karte (Messtischblatt) from the area
of western and central-north Poland, plus approx. 130 sheets from our
own collection
- approx. 1500 sheets,
British, American (and several French), covering the area of
Germany within post-WW2 borders.
Older edition, dated 1943 - 1944 are re-printed copies of, sometimes,
rather old editions of German Topographische Karte (Messtischblatt).
From 1944 onwards, most editions were updated from air photography. The
series is called, interchangably (sometimes) as GSGS 4414, and AMS M
841, elsewhere GSGS 4414 (AMS M841) or AMS M841 (GSGS 4414). Several
sheets prepared for and / or published by the French Service
Géographique des Forces Françaises
en Allemagn. Later, post-WW2 editions produced under the BAOR (British
Army of the Rhine), although the bulk of the sheets are the work of
AMS, for USAREUR (United States Army Europe).
In time, also (west) German istitutions participated in the series,
particularly the Land Survey Offfice (LSO) based in Frankfurt a.M.,
later incorporated into the Instituts für Erdmessung (Institute for
Geodesy).
Several new items in the Literature section,
most importantly, German Military topography journals from 1942 -
Mitteilungen des Chef des Kriegskarten und Vermessungswesens. The set
is incomplete, but as usual, we will try to locate missing issues and
index sheets
Mapa
Rzeczypospolitej Polskiej i Krajów Ościennych (Map of the Republic of
Poland & Neighouring Coutries) in several sheets of 1:750,000
scale, published by WIG in mid-1920. This "edition", dated approx. 1924
is incomplete (missing Eastern Poland), glued together sklejone of
several individual sheets based on the original, Austrian 1:750,000
maps. As the 600 dpi
is large, approx. 120 Mb, we've made it available in 300 dpi too. And what the full,
wall-sized variant looked like, can be seen on a photo fished out of the Poland's National
Digital Archive. few other
WIG-related photos can be seen here.
A German "MAP OF RAILROADS and steamships in EUROPE" dated
approx. 1870: "EISENBAHN-Dampfschiffrouten-Karte von EUROPA". The map
was known and republished many times over well into 20th century. This
edition howeve is substantially larger (180 cm x 137
cm), good enough for a photo-wallpaper. 600 dpi file is approx. 215 Mb,
so we have also made available a more reasonable 300 dpi (80 Mb),
and for those who just want to appreciate the looks, a 100
dpi variant (7.6 Mb), which should open in most, if not all
web browsers).
We have also added several dozen original index sheets, which
correspond to various map series. As there are hundreds, perhaps
thousands of index sheets floating around, there is no space to list
those added here. They can be found at the bottom of individual index
sheets, e.g. WIG 1:100 000, as well as at the
bottom of map lists, e.g. WIG 1:25,000, old edition. More
index sheets will be added within the next couple of weeks.
eLiterature
Several new items in the "Literature” section: in Polish:
Courtesy of Mr Grzegorz Słomczyński, a paper by his grandfather, a
known WIG cartographer, written in Italy, approx. 1945r.: J.
Słomczyński „Rzuty Kartograficzne” (PDF), (DOC)
[Cartographic projections]
Hi:
Are there any other maps showing parishes such as:
Andrzej Tomczak
Siec parafialna
Wojewoddztwa pomorskiego
Okregu bytowskiego I leborskiego
W drugiej polowie xvi wieku
Skala 1:300.
Thanks
@JMisiewicz
I tried to send an e-mail, but got an auto-response: "The e-mail address you entered couldn't be found"
If you want to get in touch, please use e-mail (see left)
Hello Marek. I am referring to the Ossada settlements created by Marshal Pilsudski in the Kresy after the 1920 Polish-Soviet war. I am hoping that there exists a map showing the location of these Ossa
