Finding Old Maps Online

On Wednesday morning I shared a neat geography quiz that asks students to identify cities by looking at historic maps. In that blog post I suggested having students compare the historic maps shown in the quiz with other historic maps in order to come up with accurate responses on the quiz. Old Maps Online is a good site that your students can use to find historic maps. Old Maps Online is a map that you can browse and search to find historical maps to view online, to download, and to print. You can search the map by entering a location or you can just pan and zoom around the world to find historical maps. In the video embedded below I demonstrate how to use Old Maps Online.

Identifying Cities from Historic Maps - A Geography Game

Late last year The Guardian published a challenging geography quiz. The quiz presents historic maps of ten cities. You have to identify the city by examining the map. The quiz is multiple choice so you do have a little bit of hint as there are only three choices for each map. The quiz gives instant feedback when you submit your answers. The ten cities in the quiz are Berlin, Tokyo, Mexico City, Barcelona, Sydney, London, Kolkata, Rome, Lima, and Vienna.

Applications for Education
The Guardian's historic city map quiz could be a good activity for students to complete. Rather than just guessing at the answers I would have students look at the answer choices then find historic maps of each city in the answer choices before making a selection. Students could use the David Rumsey Historic Map layer in Google Earth to find historic maps of cities. Students could also use Old Maps Online to find historic maps of cities.

H/T to Maps Mania.