Maps and Atlases

Asian Special Collections · Maps and Atlases

Leiden University Libraries acquires oldest known map of Deshima

Looking for the earliest map of Deshima, the Dutch VOC trading post in Japan? Save yourself a long journey: from now on it can be found in Leiden University Library.

Guest author • 20-01-2026

Maps and Atlases

World history as river delta: The first Stream of Times-map

A new map genre emerged in the 19th century: the Stream of Times-map, depicting history as a system of dividing and converging rivers. Friedrich Strass published 'Der Strom der Zeiten' in 1803, considered a first of its kind. Dutchman Johan Willem Scheele, however, designed one a century earlier.

Martijn Storms • 22-11-2022

Maps and Atlases

Re-use of maps in times of paper scarcity during WW2

During the Second World War availability of paper was limited, so the backsides of old topographic map sheets were re-used to print new maps. The UBL Special Collections hold a complete series of WWII maps of the Netherlands, several of which were printed on the the backsides of older maps.

Martijn Storms • 09-02-2021

Maps and Atlases

Mapping epidemics: nineteenth-century cholera maps of Leiden

In the nineteenth century, cholera outbreaks struck several cities in the Netherlands. Mapmakers struggled to aggregate the complex data gathered about the disease into clear cartographic images, a problem cartographers struggle with even today.

Martijn Storms • 04-06-2020

Maps and Atlases

A Spectacular ´Map Theatre´: The 1593 edition of Christiaan Adrichem´s Theatrum Terrae Sanctae

Sacred geography (geographia sacra) was a flourishing field of scholarship in the early modern period. The atlas of the Holy Land by Christiaan van Adrichem falls squarely within this category of sacred geography.

Guest author • 08-04-2020

Maps and Atlases

The cartography of Captain James Cook

It must have been quite the sight. On the 3rd of June 1769 – now 250 years ago – Englishmen were on the island of Tahiti looking through high-quality telescopes to watch a rare natural phenomenon: the transit of Venus across the face of the Sun.

Guest author • 02-06-2019