Make Your Own Coloring Maps

The Coloring Book Generator is a clever application which can turn any of the thousands of maps in the Leventhal Map & Education Center at the Boston Public Library into a bitonal image, which is perfect for printing and coloring in.

If you go to the Leventhal Map & Education Center's Digital Collections you can search for maps in the library's huge collection of vintage and historical maps. When you find a map which you like you can then just  copy & paste the URL of its Digital Collections webpage into the Coloring Book Generator. It will then turn your map into a bitonal image.

For example you can try copying & pasting this URL - 

https://collections.leventhalmap.org/search/commonwealth:x633f8530

to create a coloring map from a 1796 Plan of Boston by John West (pictured above).

The Mapbox Coloring Book

If you or your children are looking for more fun maps to color then you can also print off the Mapbox Coloring Book. The Mapbox Coloring Book (PDF) is a printable collection of blank maps from around the world. The book includes maps from Africa, Asia, Europe, Oceania and North & South America. All you need for this fun task is a printer and some colored pens, pencils or crayons.

If you manage to complete all the maps in the book then the Mapbox Blog has instructions on how you can create your own coloring maps (you just need to create a free Mapbox account if you don't already have one).

If you want some more maps to color in then the UK's Ordnance Survey has created 14 coloring maps of various UK locations - Coloring Maps.  

The New York Public Library has also created its own coloring book. The NYPL's Color Our Collection book includes a number of black & white images from its Digital Collections, which are perfect for coloring-in. The #ColorOurCollections (PDF) even includes a map (District Map Section No. 13) from 1913. The other black & white images which you can color in include animals, Egyptian hieroglyphics and flowers.