Maps and atlases

The Maps and Atlas Collection at Special Collections holds many maps, modern and old, topographic and thematic, printed and in manuscript, and a small collection of atlases of the Netherlands and the former colonies Dutch Indonesia and Suriname.

1. Old maps (1600-1850)

The oldest printed maps are from the 16th and 17th century, including an interesting collection of maps of the Dutch polders. Most of these maps are digitized.

2. Dutch Map Series (1850-now)

A large collection of modern maps of the Dutch Topographical Survey (1850-now, scales 1:25,000 and 1:50,000) and thematic map series on hydrology, geology, geomorphology can be found in the Catalogue.

3. Alterra map collection (1945-2000)

This collection contains approximately 7300 thematic maps related to the rural areas of the Netherlands. The maps were made over a period of 55 years starting in 1945. The collection has been put together by the research institute Alterra, now called Wageningen Environmental Research. The maps were made by predecessors of Alterra, mainly by the Staring centrum (-DLO), de Foundation for Soil Mapping (StiBoKA) and the state institutes for forestry and nature research (IBN and RIVON). The maps present data on soil science, geomorphology, groundwater, landscape, land consolidation, vegetation, flora and fauna, archaeology and cultural history. These maps can be found in the Image Collections. Not all maps are digitized.