Street Maps of Boston circa 1910

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Riverside

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Hi everyone,

Hope this is the right place to post this question. Mods, please feel free to move.

I'm working on a project at work constructing maps using old census data. Right now, I'm working on Boston in 1910. Due to the nature of the project, we are very reliant on contemporary resources, particularly high(er)-resolution street maps.

Some rudimentary googling and examination of the usual suspects (Norman Levanthal Collection, Ward Maps, Historic Map Works, Community Heritage Maps, EDIT: Brighton Allston Historical Society, Jamaica Plain Historical Society, etc.) yields some good results, but I'm trying to cast as wide a net as possible in terms of gathering resources.

So I'm wondering if anyone here knows of any good quality, digitally available street maps of Boston (including Southie, Eastie, Roxbury, Dorchester, Mattapan, Brighton, all that jazz) dating between 1900 and 1915. We really need all the streets to be labeled, and the presence of railroad tracks, trolley tracks and geographical features are plusses, not minuses.

Ideally, the files would be downloadable so that we're not limited to a small, in-browser viewer. But I'll take anything.

It's worth mentioning that this project does have a budget, though not a big one. So if you know a good map that costs some money, feel free to suggest it. Also, we have access to major university resources (though not necessarily major university money, heh), so if that is a factor, it shouldn't be a problem (ie. if a map is available through a UMass Library, it might be easier for us to procure than otherwise). If a map, by chance, is geocoded, all the better.

Any help at all would be very greatly appreciated. :)
 
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The BPL Copley Branch (Fine Arts) has all of the 1890 atlases and 1915 atlases (Bromley)

I got to dig through them last semester. Was absolutely fascinating.
 
Isn't the BPL collection the Levanthal Collection?
 
Thanks, Matthew and datadyne007. :)

I probably should have mentioned that I just finished a similar project for Boston in 1930. I used the BA Historical Society's maps there and they were indeed very helpful. Should have mentioned them in my OP. Thank you, though, Matthew!

Datadyne007, are those maps available digitally? And are they separate from the Levanthal map collection at maps.bpl.org ? They sound great. EDIT: Thanks, statler.

2nd EDIT: One thing about those Historical Society maps is that, while they are great at later stages of the project, they are a bit cumbersome to use because you have to keep switching between plates.
 
statler said:
Isn't the BPL collection the Levanthal Collection?
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I don't really know what the difference is, tbh. The thing that sucks about using the original atlases from Fine Arts is that you can't scan them, but I'd assume if you're with an established organization, arrangements could be made. They are not available digitally. This was my issue as well. I ended up having to use the BRA current CAD map and draw in all the old streets based on photos I took of the atlas.

They're more for quick information look-ups and fact-checking than they are for long-term digital overlay projects. Still a fantastic resource if you need to verify something that might be fuzzy on a digital copy.
 
datadyne007 said:
I don't really know what the difference is, tbh. The thing that sucks about using the original atlases from Fine Arts is that you can't scan them, but I'd assume if you're with an established organization, arrangements could be made. They are not available digitally. This was my issue as well. I ended up having to use the BRA current CAD map and draw in all the old streets based on photos I took of the atlas.

They're more for quick information look-ups and fact-checking than they are for long-term digital overlay projects. Still a fantastic resource if you need to verify something that might be fuzzy on a digital copy.
Click to expand...

Hmm, that's good to know. Sounds like it would probably be more effort than would make sense for us; if the maps can't be sent to us digitally, they're not nearly as helpful. Unfortunately, that's just where we can use our resources at the moment.

They don't, by chance, have the enumeration districts for the 1910 census included, do they? (Ha, if that were the case, we'd move heaven and earth to get access to them!)

Still, though, if I get bored this semester, I might go up to Boston and investigate this collection further. Sounds pretty cool.
 
I searched for WEEKS for digital copies of any sort of old atlases or maps. They just don't exist. There's a million of the Shawmut Peninsula and a few of the Back Bay after it was filled in, but anything in the 1900s just doesn't seem to be digital.
 
Have you checked out the Boston Atlas Project? (http://www.mapjunction.com/bra/) The interface is buggy, but they have high-res digitized scans of most of the Bromley atlases in the BPL collection, and a bunch of other stuff. Its possible (though less-than-ideal), to get high res downloads out of it. Its certainly saved me a ton of time.
 
zv72983 said:
Have you checked out the Boston Atlas Project? (http://www.mapjunction.com/bra/) The interface is buggy, but they have high-res digitized scans of most of the Bromley atlases in the BPL collection, and a bunch of other stuff. Its possible (though less-than-ideal), to get high res downloads out of it. Its certainly saved me a ton of time.
Click to expand...

Hmm, yeah, I had checked out BAP before, but at first glance it seemed so buggy that it wasn't worth bothering.

On closer look, though, yeah, it does have a lot of good resources; I'm particularly impressed with the combined Bromley maps in the "New Java Viewer". Thank you for drawing my attention back to it. :)

(But man, is it buggy...)
 
JonFrum, what browser and OS are you viewing the Boston Atlas on? (If I may ask.)

Also, thanks for the tip about the David Rumsey Collection! Much appreciated.
 
Firefox and both Windows 7 and XP. I've been using the Boston Atlas for a few years now with no problem I can remember - literally hundreds of times.
 
Okay, thanks. Good to know that bad experiences with it aren't universal. I've been using Chrome on OS X.6.8; when I'm back at work, I'll try it on the PC I've got there. Here's hoping!
 
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