Maps
Map Collections in the State Archives
- Archives Map Collection - A guide to Manuscript Group 11, which describes over 1,000 maps. The maps are grouped into seven sections: Colony and Commonwealth; Counties; Townships; Cities and Boroughs; Boundaries, Topography, Geology, Parks; Transportation (including Indian trails, roads and turnpikes, rivers and streams, canals, railroads, air routes, etc.); Military and Battlefields (French and Indian War, Revolutionary War, and Civil War).
- Birdseye Maps - Views of various Pennsylvania municipalities drawn by Thaddeus Mortimer Fowler between 1887 and 1906.
- Canal Commissioners Map Books - Map books prepared by engineers at the request of the Commissioners for the purpose of illustrating routes for the various divisions of the Pennsylvania Canal system or to illustrate the final layout after construction. Few of these show routes as they were finally laid out and operated and are primarily preliminary plans. In addition to providing overall layouts for how the finished canals were intended to look, they also contain numerous drawings of dams, raft chutes, feeders, reservoirs, locks, lock gates, lock houses, aqueducts, towing path bridges, and waste weirs illustrating how the system was intended to work.
- County Maps and Atlases: General - Covering the late 1850s through the 1870s.
- Land Office Map Collection - An index of Land Office maps found in Record Group 17, arranged alphabetically by county and then by township.
- Melish-Whiteside County Maps - Maps, created between 1816 and 1821, of forty-four counties, Record Group 17.
- Original Land Owners ("Connected Draft Maps") - These maps, in Record Group 17, show original land owners for portions of land within selected townships across the Commonwealth.
- Original Land Owners ("Warrantee Township Maps") - Depict original land owners for selected townships across the Commonwealth.
- Original Surveys ("Copied Surveys") - These surveys, from Record Group 17, reproduce the original surveys completed for people who purchased unclaimed land directly from the land office maintained by William Penn and his familly, or (later) from the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, between 1681 and 1912.
- Railroad Maps - A guide to series in the State Archives
- State Road and Turnpike Maps - Record Group 12, with maps from 1706 to 1873
- Traffic and Legislative Route Maps - Sixty-seven maps from the Bureau of Strategic Planning of the Department of Transportation, Record Group 52.
- Transportation and Tourism Maps - Eleven maps from the Bureau of Planning of the Department of Transportation, Record Group 52.
Other Maps and Map Sites
- Collections with Maps at the Library of Congress
- Genealogical Map of PA Counties, PDF version (purchase a copy)
- Genealogical Map of PA Counties, Flash version (animation showing growth over time)
- Historical Maps of Pennsylvania - A website containing many maps not found at the State Archives.
- Incorporation Dates of PA Municipalities, 1965
- Maps of Pennsylvania's Historic Suburbs
- Mine Map Atlas - A website of the PA Department of Environmental Protection and Penn State University covering anthracite and bituminous coal fields.
- PennDOT Historic and Miscellaneous Maps - includes tourism and transportation maps; present-day and historic county maps; township, borough, and city maps; and others.
- Pennsylvania Historic Underground Mine Map Inventory System (PHUMMIS) - Contains information relevant to past and present underground mining within the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, including, but not limited to, maps, indices, locations of mines, and other pertinent data contained in various collections held or obtained by the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection's (Department) Office of Active and Abandoned Mine Operations.
- Pennsylvania Political Subdivisions Map, 1965 (PDF)
- Sanborn Fire Insurance Maps for Pennsylvania - A near complete collection of Sanborn Fire Insurance maps for the state of Pennsylvania from the Penn State University Maps Library.