Where to Find Public-Domain Antique Maps
Two things are old, and only one of them is free
An antique map has been out of copyright for centuries. The photograph of it that a library puts online is a separate thing, and the library decides what you may do with that file. Most of the great map archives let anyone reuse their scans for any purpose. A few allow it only for private study, or charge a fee as soon as money is involved. The tag “public domain” on a map tells you about the map; the archive’s terms of use tell you about the file.
The law is on the side of reuse. In the European Union, Article 14 of Directive 2019/790 says a faithful reproduction of a public-domain work of visual art is not itself protected; in the United States, Bridgeman v. Corel reached the same result for photographs of two-dimensional works. An archive can still attach conditions to the files it serves, through its terms of use — which is why the list below is sorted by what each archive actually says.
We restore maps from these collections for a living, so we read their terms closely. Every line below was checked against the archive’s own page in September 2026. Terms change; the item page always has the last word. This is a practical guide, not legal advice.
Free to reuse for any purpose
| Archive | Strong for | What the archive says about its scans | Credit |
|---|---|---|---|
| Library of Congress, Geography and Map Division | World maps and atlases, North America, city views, panoramic maps | Digitised maps are free to use and reuse, unless the item page shows a Rights Advisory | Requested: “Library of Congress, Geography and Map Division” |
| Leventhal Map & Education Center, Boston Public Library | World maps, school atlases, New England | Item records read “No known copyright restrictions. No known restrictions on use.” | Courtesy |
| Harvard Library (Harvard Map Collection) | Early printed maps, sea charts, the Americas | Reproductions of public-domain works “may be used by anyone for any purpose” | Citation requested as good practice |
| New York Public Library Digital Collections | New York, the Americas, atlases | Items released as public domain are free to use without permission; the rights line on each item says which ones | Appreciated |
| Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam | Dutch maps, celestial plates, prints | Public-domain works are released under CC0 / Public Domain Mark and may be used “including for commercial purposes, without needing to request permission” | Optional |
| Polona, National Library of Poland | Central and Eastern Europe, French and Dutch atlas sheets | Public-domain objects may be used “for commercial purposes, without asking anyone for permission”; the rights panel on each object says which category it is in | Courtesy |
| National Library of Norway | Scandinavia, early world maps | Items marked Public domain are open worldwide; many other items can only be viewed from Norway | Courtesy |
| e-rara (Swiss libraries, incl. ETH Zurich) | Swiss maps, cosmographies, rare atlases | Public-domain titles carry the Public Domain Mark | Courtesy |
| Cartoteca Digital, Institut Cartogràfic i Geològic de Catalunya | Catalonia, Spain, the Mediterranean, classical world maps | Old maps carry the Public Domain Mark 1.0 on the item record | Courtesy |
Free with a credit line
| Archive | Strong for | Terms | Credit |
|---|---|---|---|
| National Library of Scotland, Map Images | Scotland and Britain, Blaeu’s atlas, town plans, world maps | Most images are under CC BY, commercial use included. Several collections are non-commercial only — the exceptions are listed, and the viewer shows the licence of each sheet | Required: “Reproduced with the permission of the National Library of Scotland” and a link to the Map Images website |
Free to look at, not free to sell
| Archive | Terms | What that means for you |
|---|---|---|
| David Rumsey Map Collection | Images are under CC BY-NC-SA 3.0; permission is needed to make reproductions “as stand alone for sale facsimiles” | Perfect for study, teaching and research — the best catalogue of printed maps online. Selling prints of its scans needs a written permission |
| Gallica, Bibliothèque nationale de France | Non-commercial reuse is free with credit; use in anything sold is subject to authorisation and a fee | Free for a school project or a blog without income; a print, a book for sale or a product needs a paid licence |
| National Library of Israel | Use of the images is limited to private study, scholarship or research; commercial use needs written permission | A rich source for maps of the Holy Land; ask before any commercial use |
Aggregators: where to search, not what to trust
Old Maps Online searches hundreds of thousands of maps from many of the archives above by place, and Europeana does the same for European libraries. Wikimedia Commons holds copies of many of the same scans. All three are excellent for finding a sheet — but the rights always come from the archive that made the scan. On Commons, read the “source” line of the file: a copy of a Gallica scan is still a Gallica scan.
Checking one map in three minutes
- Open the archive’s own item page, not a copy. Find the rights field — it is called Rights, Rights Advisory, Licence or Usage.
- Read what it says about the file, not the map: “no known restrictions”, a Public Domain Mark or CC0 mean any use; CC BY means credit; anything with NC, “non-commercial”, “private study” or “please contact us” means ask first.
- Keep a note: the item address, the rights text and the date you read it. If the question ever comes up, that note is the answer.
How large will it print?
Download the largest file the archive offers — often a TIFF or a full-size JPEG behind a “download” menu. At 300 dpi, a map needs about 3,500 pixels on its long side for an A4 print and about 5,000 for A3; the pixels-to-centimetres table has the rest. Remember that a raw scan also carries the scanner’s colour cast, a dark mount and a century of dust — what it takes to make one printable is a job of its own.
How to credit a map
Whatever the archive requires, a good credit names three things: the map, the archive and, if the file was restored or cropped, who did it. For example:
Guillaume Delisle, Orbis veteribus noti tabula nova, Paris 1714. Scan: National Library of Poland (Polona).
If you would rather skip all this
Every map on this site was restored from a scan whose terms we read before we started, and every product page names the archive and links to the archive’s own record of the sheet. Twenty of them are free to download at screen size for lessons, articles and presentations — the button under each one copies a ready credit line.