Maps
Telling a Story Through Highway and Planning Maps
(Map and Highway Research Sources)
Introduction to History through Maps
The goal of this section of California Highways is to use actual
and planning maps from various years to tell the highway history of
various regions of the state. Choose one of the areas below to start your
journey:
-
Southern California:
-
Northern California:
The following are some additional maps of interest that aren't covered by
the pages above:
Actual Maps: California
The following are maps that will help highway researchers conduct their
research:
Actual Maps: Regional (as
indicated)
Other Useful Map
Sources
- David Rumsey Map
Collection. This site is more than just California
State Highway maps. But he does have an
extensive collection of California maps.
- Old Maps Online .
Easy to use gateway to historical maps.
- Maps of the Past.
Maps of the Past is the source for historical maps. We have
painstakingly restored 6,000 antique maps already and others are
available on request. If you are looking for historical maps of any area
in the United States, call us first! Our library and archives include
antique map reproductions by the finest mapmakers in history: William
Rand McNally, Thomas Jefferys, Mathias Seutter, The Visscher Family,
Henry Popple, William Faden, Herman Moll, H. F. Walling, Simon Martinet,
Fielding Lucas, William Blaeu, S. Augustus Mitchell, Jeremiah Greenleaf,
David Burr, Joseph H. Colton, George Cram, Anthony Finley, Henry Tanner,
Mathew Carey, Frederick W. Beers, Steven Long, and Robert Knox Sneden.
We're proud to be the exclusive holder of rights to a series of maps
from Robert Knox Sneden's detailed personal history of the Civil War.
- Los Angeles Public
Library Map Collection. The map collection is over one
hundred years old, contains more than 225,000 physical items and
represents a wide scope, including local, national and international
cartography. Selections in this online collection focus on maps
depicting Los Angeles and the West. Look for more maps to be digitized
and added soon.
- Automobile
Club of Southern California collection, 1892-1963 at USC.
The Automobile Club of Southern California Collection provides
documentation on the region's transportation history, especially Los
Angeles from 1892 to 1963, from the Auto Club's Corporate Archives. The
Collection includes: a selection of 98 historic strip maps, illustrating
the development of major Southern California routes; 498 photographs
from the general photograph collection, depicting buildings, businesses,
streets, and points of interest; and 650 photographs from engineering
notebooks along with searchable transcriptions of the engineers' notes
documenting the conditions of streets, highways, bridges, railroads,
etc. [Calisphere]
- Auto
Club of California Strip Maps (1916-1920) (Stanford
Libraries)
- David
Smoller Map Collection (2201 maps covering primarily
California, including Auto Club maps) (Stanford Libraries)
- CSUN Map
Collection . The CSUN University Library Map Collection
holds a research-level collection of approximately 400,000 historical
and government maps, aerial photographs, atlases, and geospatial data
that support research on campus. While holdings are international in
scope, the collection emphasizes Western Americana, particularly maps of
California, Los Angeles County, and the San Fernando Valley.
- Nevada
Historical Highway Maps. A large collection, from the
Nevada Department of Transportation, with historical state highway maps
of Nevada and much more. This is relevant for California both for the
continuation of routes into the state.
- Historic Map Works.
Based in Portland Maine, Historic Map Works, LLC is an Internet company
formed to create a historic digital map database of North America and
the world. Drawing on the largest physical collection of American
property atlases of its type, it is our aim to be the single best online
destination for map enthusiasts and researchers alike.
- Stanford
University Map Collection. OAC/No Online Items. The
maps in this collection pertain to the University campus, to other lands
owned by Jane and Leland Stanford or the University, and to adjacent
communities. Here's an
additional link.
- San
Jose Library Digital Map Collection.
- Historic
Maps of the Bay Area (Berkeley Library).
- Ted's
Vintage Maps: Old California Maps. Although the maps
are for sale, they are also viewable: when you click into a map page and
use the zoom button... you can see all kinds of details down to specific
street names, property owner names, business names, etc.
- OpenSFHistory:
Historical Images of San Francisco. All sorts of mapped
images of San Francisco Streets.
- Forest Highway
Motor Vehicle Use Map. For routes in or traversing
National Forests, this shows the forest route numbers, and often, it
clearly shows county, state, federal, and local mountainways.
- Vernors
Guides American Roads: City Maps. Features old city
maps from various sources such as Official Automobile Blue Books and ALA
Green Guides. This includes a number of maps for California cities.
- MKPL's
Map Site (via Internet Archive/Wayback Machine). Lots
of good map scans, including California (south), 1926; California
(north), 1926; Coastal Southern California, 1926; San Francisco to
Carson City, 1926; Los Angeles and Vicinity, 1933; San Jose and San
Diego, 1933; San Francisco, 1933; Sacramento, 1933; Fresno and Stockton,
1933; California and Nevada, 1933; Los Angeles area, 1942; Los Angeles
and Vicinity, 1942; San Diego, 1942; San Francisco, 1942; San Jose and
Sacramento, 1942; Stockton, Fresno, and Bakersfield, 1942; California
and Nevada, 1942; Los Angeles and vicinity, 1941 (473k); San Francisco
and vicinity, 1941 (378k); Los Angeles street map, 1943 (399k); Coastal
Southern California, 1955; Coastal Southern California, 1955 (700k);
Eastern Southern California, 1955; Central Valley of California, 1955;
Northern California: Bay Area to Lake Tahoe, 1955; Northern California,
1955; Los Angeles and Vicinity, 1955; Northern California: Bay Area to
Sacramento, 1955; San Francisco Bay Area, 1955; Long Beach and Orange
County, CA, 1961; Route of California 170, 1961 Before it was built
through the San Fernando Valley; California 170, 1963; California 170,
1966 Note is "Complete late 1966"; East L.A. interchange, 1963;
California 118 and California 134 (eastern portion) freeways, 1963;
Downtown Long Beach, 1964; California 134 at I-5, 1965 before the CA 134
freeway was built east of I-5; Sacramento, CA, 1967; San Diego, 1967;
San Diego, 1969; Sacramento, CA, 1977; San Francisco, 1975
- Old Insurance Maps .
Useful resource for researching social impacts of highway construction.
Provides "red-lining" insurance maps, with transparency to current maps.
Caltrans GIS Resources and
Tools:
Other Useful Research
Sources
- LA Metro:
- Metro Primary
Resources. The official knowledge and information hub from Metro
Transportation Research Library and Archive
- Metro Library Archive of California Highways and Public Works
(CHPW): 1924-1967
- Caltrans Library
Digital Collections. All sorts of Caltrans reference information,
incluing CHPW, Going Places, and the California Highway Bulletin
- California
Digital Newspaper Collection. Project of UC Riverside and the
State of California.
- Metropolitan Transporation Commission (MTC): Digital
Library
- San Jose Public Library: CA
Dept. of Highways (CALTRANS) Right of Way Assessment. This
collection includes Right of Way Assessments for the County of Santa
Clara from 1938 through 1979.
- AASHTO: Route
Numbering Archive. A storehouse of applications, correspondence,
minutes, and other documents related to the numbering of the US and
Interstate highway systems and the US Bike Route System.
- Bridgehunter. Basically, anything you
want to know about a bridge in the USA.
- Indicies of Indicies:
(Un-flagged items from my research. Others: 1: Cal
Poly Pomona, Finding Primary Sources picked up a LA Archives
Bazaar, 10/18/2025)
- Digital
Library Directory . An online directory of the best
digital library resources. Hint: Start at Social
Sciences»Geography and Maps.
- Internet
Scout . Since 1994, the Internet Scout Research Group
(Scout) has focused on developing better tools and services for
finding, filtering, and presenting online information and metadata.
Located on the University of Wisconsin-Madison's campus, and part of
the Computer Science Department in the University's College of Letters
and Sciences, Scout has access to highly educated content specialists
and a world-class array of computer science and library resources.
- Online Archive of
California . OAC is your gateway to detailed
descriptions of the unique holdings of over 350 archival institutions
throughout the state of California.
- Calisphere .
The University of California's Calisphere is your gateway to digital
collections from California's great libraries, archives, and museums.
Discover over 2,125,000 images, texts, and recordings.
- Global Memory Net .
Global Memory Net (GMNet) is intended to be a model global digital
library of cultural, historical, and heritage image collections. Much
of these unique collections are of great value to education and
research and are not currently accessible due to distance, form, and
technical barriers. This project is intended to find new ways to
enable users to access and exploit these significant collections via
the global network.
- LA as Subject 1.
A research alliance that provides a directory of collections related
to the Los Angeles region.
- ArchiveGrid 1.
A collection of millions of archival material descriptions from
institutions worldwide.
- Digital Public Library of America
(DPLA) 1. Provides assess to digitized
photographs, books, maps, news footage, oral histories, museum
objects, artwork, government documents, and more.
- Library of
Congress Digital Collections 1. Digitized
primary sources searchable by collection, topic, and format.
- Reveal
Digital 1. Thematic collections source from
diverse sources through a crowd-publishing model.
Map Posting and Usage
Policy
- Current commercially available maps will not be posted in their
entirety, although small portions may be used for discussion and
teaching purposes. These portions will not be full size.
- State highway maps will not be posted in their entirety,
although portions may be used for discussion and teaching purposes.
- Copyright will be respected as much as possible, although
excerpts from copyrighted material may be used for discussion and
teaching purposes.
- The source for a map will always be indicated, if known, with
the exception being maps derived from Google Maps and the Caltrans
Postmile Tool, which uses Google Maps.
- This site has no control over maps posted on sites not part of
the California Highways web structure.
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Development - 1940s
© 1996-2024 Daniel P.
Faigin.
Maintained by: Daniel P.
Faigin <webmaster@cahighways.org>.