The University of Alabama Libraries Special Collections has an extensive collection of maps, focusing especially on Alabama and what later became the U.S. Southeast from the 16th through early 21st centuries.

The collection also contains many early world maps from important Dutch cartographers such as Gerardus Mercator, Jodocus and Hendrik Hondius, and Jan Jansoon as well as French, Italian, and English map makers. The earliest maps are from Abraham Ortelius’s 1570 atlas Typvs Orbis Terrarvm. It also holds a volume of Joan Blaeu’s influential Atlas Maior, published in 1662, containing maps of the Americas.

For more details about our holdings, see our guide to the Rare Maps Collection.

Many of our rare and unique maps have been digitized and can be found online in our Historical Maps digital collection.