MAPS COLLECTION
This collection features more than 25,000 atlases, maps, and architectural drawings showing Kansas, the Great Plains, the United States, and the world. Strong sections of the collection includes railroads, roads and trails, the military, land surveys and ownership, and Kansas cities and counties.
While a large portion of the collection represents Kansas in the 19th century, it includes some non-Kansas maps, both originals and reproductions, from 1550 to the present. Nearly all states are represented, many large cities, several countries, a small portion of New World maps, and maps of American military involvement in Europe and Asia.
Map Collection
Nebraska and Kansas
Kansas Territory, created in 1854, extended from the 37th parallel to the south, 40th parallel at the north, the Missouri border to the east, and the Rocky Mountains to the west. Delegates writing a new state constitution in 1859 discussed changing the state's borders. They considered moving the western boundary farther to the east. annexing a southern portion of Nebraska, or making the Platte River a boundary. Debates ensued between Big Kansas versus Little Kansas.
Created on the basis of popular sovereignty, voters had the right to determine whether Kansas would enter the Union as a free state. Territorial voters in the east supported the free-state cause. But occupants in the far west and Nebraska had not been included in the vote. They had the right to
With concerns that further delays could further delay or jeopardize the path to admission, delegates decided to support Little Kansas. The 34th state would include neither southern Nebraska nor the gold fields. The state's western border was set at the 25th parallel of longitude west from Washington, making the new state 82,278 square miles.
Kansas Memory
Find samples in our online digital archives
Materials in this Collection
Agriculture Maps
The Kansas State Board of Agriculture annual and biennial reports, published since 1874, contain statistical information about Kansas, its people and products, and for the first 15 years, statistics and maps for each county.
Atlases
Dating from the 1880s to 1920s, these county atlases or plat books provide information about land ownership. They show plat maps of townships, and owners of individual parcels of rural land. They include rural churches, cemeteries, and schools. Some city plats are included but not owners of city lots. They may include illustrations, county residents, and farms, as well as a directory of residents. Some world and U.S. atlases are included in this section.
Land Survey Maps
These maps created by state agencies confirmed section corners for surveyors, Original land survey maps, federal Bureau of Land Management set, and surveyors' original field notes are also part of the collection.
Professional surveyors can request reports through our Land Survey program
Out-of-State Maps
Property Ownership Maps
Spanning the late 19th to early 20th centuries, these maps show land ownership in rural areas. They can be useful for genealogical research and finding roads and other rural features.
Railroad Maps
Road and Trail Maps
Sanborn Fire Insurance Maps
Produced by the Sanborn Map Company and other firms for fire insurance companies from 1883 to 1954, with revisions as late as 1968, these maps were used to assign risk for underwriting purposes. The entire state is covered with in the more than 1,500 sets.
They are useful in determining the date of a structure, for restoration of a building, and also for genealogical research.
They show tracts with individual properties and buildings using a complex set of symbols and colors to denote construction details. They include lots, streets, names, numbers, locations of water lines, fire hydrants, other features of urban landscape, and an index of street names and significant buildings in each volume. Similar information on individual properties in written form may be found in the Kansas Inspection Bureau's Fire Insurance Rates Booklets, 1890-1944.
U.S. Geological Survey Quadrangle Maps
Because of the range of original formats, we request prior notification through this form submission.
Select items in this collection are available through Kansas Memory:
How to Access this Collection
Much of the collection can be viewed in person in the Research Room in Topeka.
Because of the range of original formats, we request prior notification through this form submission.
Select items in this collection are available through Kansas Memory:
How to Purchase Copies in this Collection
Some copies of maps are available to be ordered, based on format.
Please use this form to place an order.
How to Donate to this Collection
We rely on the generous donations of materials that tell the story of Kansas history, or loans that allow duplication. Please use this donor form.
