McGill Libraries has an extensive print map collection, with a primary emphasis on Montreal, the province of Quebec, Canada, and the United States. Some of the maps have catalogue records in Sofia. Using Advanced Search, you can limit the search results by Format = Maps.
Also included in this collection are several series of historical airphotos:
McGill Libraries contributes to GÉOPHOTO, a shared platform of aerial photos available in Quebec universities, as well as from collections of the Ministère des Ressources naturelles et des Forêts (MRNF) and the Bibliothèque et Archives nationales du Québec (BAnQ). Access the Géophoto aerial photo module on GéoIndex.
The print map collection is located in a closed area of the Humanities and Social Sciences Library and is available for consultation by request. Please contact hssl.library@mcgill.ca for more information.
An inventory listing of the print map collection can be consulted for a general overview.
Historical maps and atlases, dating from 1556 to 1940, are located in the Rare Books and Special Collections Library. Significant maps in the collection include plates from the atlases of Willem Blaeu, Gerard Mercator, and Abraham Ortelius. For more information, consult rarebooks.library@mcgill.ca.
The most frequently used topographic maps in the collection are the Canadian National Topographic System 1:50 000 and 1:250 000 series.
The Canadiana (CKRN) Maps Collection currently contains nearly 22,000 Canadian maps digitized from the 1:50 000 scale National Topographic Series. The maps date from 1905 to 2012 and cover all the Canadian provinces and territories. It should be noted that the collection is not 100% complete and gaps will be filled in as missing maps become available.
Digital scanned copies of current NTS 1:50 000 and 1:250 000 map sheets are available for free public download via GeoGratis/National Resources Canada. Both series are also available as vector files.
McGill Libraries’ collection also contains discontinued Canadian National Topographic Series at the scales of 1:25 000, 1:125 000, 1:126 700, 1:500 000 and 1:1 000 000 with varying dates of cover. Also held are international topographic maps of many countries throughout the world, some produced by the country's government maps service and others by the United States Department of Defense, Army Map Service.
The collection also includes international atlases and thematic maps for many of the world's countries.
Included in the collection are nautical charts produced by the Canadian Hydrographic Service, showing features along the shoreline and seafloor, hazards, navigation aids, cultural features and natural features of the area.
The Canadian Hydrographic Service (CHS) offers a complete inventory of bathymetric data free to the general public for non-navigational use called 'CHS NONNA' for the 'NON-NAvigational' purpose of the data. The product is available in a spatial resolution of 10 or 100 metres. To access the CHS NONNA Data Portal, please follow this link.
The collection includes print copies of Operational Navigation Charts—World (ONC), Jet Navigation Charts (JNC), and Joint Operations Graphic Charts (JOG).
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