Stanfords Stanford's Route Map of the Earth Colour (1854)

The Stanford's New Map of the Earth of London is from a fascinating series of reproductions from our Edward Stanford Cartographic Collection archive.

Stanfords Stanford's Route Map of the Earth Black and White (1853)

The Stanford's Route Map of the Earth in Black and White is from a fascinating series of reproductions from our Edward Stanford Cartographic Collection archive.

Stanfords Stanford's Pacific-centred World Map (1884)

The Stanford's Pacific-centred World Map is from a fascinating series of reproductions from our Edward Stanford Cartographic Collection archive. Originally published in 1884, this political wall map is drawn on a Mercator's projection presenting the world with the Pacific Ocean at its centre. Political boundaries are coloured in bold, gradually shading lighter as is typical in maps from this time. Latitude and longitude lines are at 10° intervals. Europe and Africa look very different from today, Asia with many changes mainly in the Middle East, but the Americas mostly unchanged. A particularly interesting feature of the map is the difference in the presentation of the two Polar Regions: the Arctic Ocean with most of its coastline already there, whilst the Antarctic is still in the early stages of exploration and only segments of its coast already mapped. Separate panels show lands contiguous to the North and South Poles, drawn to the equatorial scale of the map.

Stanfords Stanford's General Map of the World on Mercator's Projection (1922)

The Stanford's General Map of the World on Mercator's Projection is from a fascinating series of reproductions from our Edward Stanford Cartographic Collection archive.

Stanfords Stanford's General Map of the World (1920) Blue Version

The Stanford's General Map of the World Blue Version is from a fascinating series of reproductions from our Edward Stanford Cartographic Collection archive.

Stanfords Stanford's General Map of the World (1920)

The Stanford's General Map of the World Map is from a fascinating series of reproductions from our Edward Stanford Cartographic Collection archive. This map from 1920 reflects the changes in political boundaries and the new world order in the aftermath of World War I. The colouring and annotations to place names not only indicate dominions and colonial possessions, with the British Empire in its customary red, but also show territories administered under the Mandate of the League of Nations. On land masses topographic information is provided by names of mountain ranges and of an unusually large number of rivers. Main railway routes are also marked. On seas and oceans, principal shipping routes are shown annotated with distances. The map has latitude and longitude lines at 15 degree intervals and for each longitude line indicates the time difference with the Greenwich Meridian. The map is drawn on a Mercator's projection.