About Us

Having joined forces with BR Internet, Maps of the Past boasts cutting-edge equipment and techniques — and years of experience in restoring and creating sharp, full color reproductions of antique posters and prints.

Thousands of customers later, Maps of the Past offers more than 13,000 maps — Civil War and Revolutionary War battle maps, vintage panoramic maps, historic usgs topo maps, antique city, county, and state maps — we have the largest selection online and have become a global leader in historical map sales. Maps of the Past is your one-stop shopping destination for high-quality State, County, City, International, Railroad, Mining, Revolutionary and Civil War, Topographic, Transportation, and Panoramic maps dating back to the sixteenth century. Our team expertly and efficiently fills orders one to of 5,000 maps or more, providing satisfied customers with breathtaking, state-of-the-art “giclee” prints.

Call our phone number Monday thru Friday, 11:00 AM – 3:00 PM CST with your questions and shop around the clock online at Maps of the Past. Growth has not gone to our heads! Each customer is treated as an individual and every order is still packed by hand with care.

A Passion for Historical Maps
Sure, we need to eat, pay the mortgage, put gas in our cars … but we are not really in this business for the money. We are in it for the love, the passion we have for these maps! Our staff lovingly inspects each map to ensure that every road, street, creek and word is crystal-clear and each map is aesthetically pleasing and will look gorgeous when framed, hanging on a home or office wall. Our map app shows you at a mouse-click the current-day location of the mapped area, and our experts make sure all the historical data is accurate in each vintage map. We love the history, the geography, the beauty of each map reproduction … but most of all, we love the fact that we are doing our small part to increase the world’s knowledge of history, cartography, maps, and genealogy. Our business is extremely labor intensive, but we wouldn’t have it any other way; each member of the team shares the passion and devotion to our company and our customers.

Antique Map Library
Maps of the Past started with a map library of nearly 300 original maps, a good portion of them Topo, City, Township, and County maps from locales throughout the state of California. We soon realized that there were thousands more gorgeous antique maps out there. The restored map library now consists of roughly 13,000 historical maps dating back to the sixteenth century. Our collection includes maps from the US Library of Congress, The David Rumsey Collection, and the US Geological Survey (including USGS topological and quad maps), as well as dozens of additional commercial and academic sources. Maps of the Past owes a special thank you to Mr. David Rumsey for his generosity in allowing us to use several of his map images in our library.

Historic Maps Restored
Nearly all original historic maps are laden with imperfections such as tears, fold lines, stains, holes, pencil markings, and rubber stamp markings, flaws that can detract from the overall appearance of the map. We have invested heavily in the finest equipment, computer software, and graphic artists available to correct each blemished area. Our combined efforts have resulted in elegant, breathtakingly beautiful historical reproductions — while keeping the historical data intact.

Our Media
We use three grades of media (paper) to print your maps, available as these four product options:

“Glossy Satin Photo Quality” – This is a very high quality, photo-grade, 7 mil thick paper. It is considered a “matte” finish, however is does have a slight sheen to it. It is a very nice paper and produces extremely attractive maps.

“Photo Quality Laminated” – All maps up to 24” wide may be laminated. The lamination is a hot process using 5 mil laminating material to produce a heavy10 mil thick, very durable plastic covering for your map.

“Matte Art Paper” – This beautiful, acid-free, lignin-, and chlorine-free, 100% cotton rag fine art archival media has the look and feel of old world handmade paper, yet it produces sharp and accurate reproductions. The Giclee process combined with this paper creates magnificent historical maps guaranteed not to fade, yellow, or crack for more than 100 years. The quality of these maps is recognized by museums and galleries around the world.

“Matte Bright Canvas” — Ideal for framing, the 40% cotton & 60% poly archival grade canvas will satisfy even the most discriminating taste. This canvas has a medium gloss finish and after printing via the giclee process, your historical maps are guaranteed not to fade, yellow, or crack for more than 100 years! The result is truly magnificent.