[1636 – present]
There are four map collections at the Library:
Cartography Collection: This is our main collection of maps and includes bound atlases
Rhode Island Map Collection: A collection of maps bound into volumes
Shepley Map Collection: A collection of maps bound into volumes, previously owned by the Shepley Library
Pocket Map Collection: A small collection of pocket, travel and fold out maps
These collections are comprised of regional, state, county and town maps from the late seventeenth century through the twentieth century.
The collections represent more than 3,500 individual maps, including:
Maps by Rhode Island surveyors: Charles Blackowitz, Caleb Harris, Sabin Lewis, John Mumford, Henry F. Walling, Daniel Anthony and James Stevens
Fire insurance atlases published by L.J. Richards, G.M. Hopkins, D.G. Beers and Everets and Richards
Historic maps created by architectural historians John Hutchins Cady and Henry Chace
Elisha Potter manuscript map collection, a group of early maps of areas in Washington County.
All of these map collections can be searched in The CABINET.
And are indexed in the Cartobibliography, available in the Reading Room.