The Maps of Africa web site “features digital copies of 113 antique maps of Africa and accompanying text dating from the mid 16th Century to the early 20th Century. All scanned maps are authentic and originally collected by the Melville J. Herskovits Library of African Studies (or the Africana Library) at Northwestern University”. The oldest map is dated 1530, and the most recent 1913. The home page has links to other areas of Northwestern University's web site, About this Site, and Contact Us. The last link contains a statement on reproductions and copyright telling the user that higher resolution images are available for free downloading in the More Information section by each map.
The Search box does not allow truncation; for example, Nor yields no results. The search terms are taken from the maps' titles and catalogue information. “Search results include each map's catalog record”. Words that exist on the maps themselves are not searchable. After the Search results come up, under the Maps and descriptions tab, the user can click on a column heading (for example, Date) and the results will sort on the factor selected (earliest to latest only; I could not reverse the order). The researcher can look at the Search results by Maps and Descriptions or Maps (thumbnails of maps without accompanying descriptions). Users can also browse by Title, Cartographer, Date, Country or African Region, or Place of Publication. Most of the maps can be blown up in sections. Arrows near the top of the map page permit a user to navigate around the larger map.
The Government and Geographic Information and Data Services 16th‐20th Century Maps of Africa logo at the top of each page takes the user back to the home page. The site is easy to navigate and visually splendid. The design of the site is clean, elegant and simple, yet complete. The maps are gorgeous, and well worth visiting. The sequence of the maps over the years shows the familiar shape of Africa gradually emerging from the fog of the unknown. Its interior mapping became more detailed and consistent as cartographers learned more about it, and rumours about African geography were tracked down and confirmed, debunked, or rearranged.
The site contains no advertisements. It is maintained by Northwestern University, a reputable and well‐funded sponsor. I have a few minor quibbles with the site. For one thing, its title is not clear. It is referred to in various parts of the site as “16th‐19th Century Maps of Africa”, “16th‐20th Century Maps of Africa”, and “16th‐Early 20th Century Maps of Africa”. The map entitled Carte de l'Afrique occidentale française dated 1908 does not blow up. The site could have presented maps from other libraries to fill in gaps in the chronology for the benefit of historical researchers, although the goal of the site is clearly to display only the maps from the Herskovits Library. All‐in‐all, this is a wonderful, priceless resource for people who are interested in cartography and/or African history. I highly recommend it.
