History Maps of the Week

Mapping Gettysburg is an interactive map about the most decisive battle in the American Civil War. The map allows you to learn more about this important event in American history through eyewitness accounts, original photographs and views of the site as it is today.

At the heart of Mapping Gettysburg is a vintage map of the battlefield from the Library of Congress. This map of the 'Field of Gettysburg' was made soon after the battle and shows "the movements of the respective armies ... compiled from the personal observation of eye-witnesses of the several battles".

Overlaid on this vintage map of the battlefield are markers which allow you to browse photographs of some of the soldiers who fell in the battle, letters and diaries from some of the soldiers, historic photos of the battlefield and modern views of Gettysburg National Park.


The POLIN Museum of the History of Polish Jews has released a fascinating interactive map exploring the plight of the city's Jews under Nazi occupation during the Second World War.

The Right Address: Hiding Jews in Occupied Warsaw tells the stories of Warsaw citizens who helped the Jews during World War II. The main navigation method used to access the stories is a vintage map of the city which allows you to select these stories by neighborhood.

Pick a neighborhood from the main map and you can view a close-up of the neighborhood. This map includes the choice to view a modern map of the city overlaid on top of the vintage map. Each neighborhood map includes a description of the neighborhood in the 1940's and a brief account of Nazi activity in the area. It also includes accounts of how individual Jews and families were sheltered by non-Jewish citizens at addresses throughout the selected neigborhood.


In 1840 Greene Street, with 14 brothels, was the center of New York City's sex industry. Since then the street has gone through many changes.

You can learn more about the long and ever changing history of Greene Street on A Long History of a Short Block by the NYU Development Research Institute. This multi-media interactive uses vintage maps, historical photographs, videos and sound to recount the many changes that Greene Street has undergone in its varied history.

You can view many of the vintage maps featured in A Long History of a Short Block by jumping straight to the 'Maps' section from the main menu. However, if you proceed through the chapters chronologically, you can view the maps embedded within the street's historical narrative. These embedded maps also include map markers, featuring historical information about Greene Street and its wider neighborhood.