Where can I find a world map from the Victorian period?

Question

I'm looking for a (preferably open-source) decently quality political map of the world from around 1890 (1885-1900 would be usable for what I want). I don't have a lot of experience looking for maps or other historical documents, and Googling hasn't given me any real information.

So, where should I be looking for a map like this at?

Answer 1

There are some atlases for 1890 or thereabouts on the internet archive. This one here is exactly 1890.

The world-wide atlas of modern geography, political and physical, containing one hundred and twelve plates and complete index [cartographic material]

There are plenty of others at this link (but not necessarily 1890).

https://archive.org/details/normanbleventhalmapcenter

Answer 2

University of Alabama has a large digital collection of historical maps grouped by region and period of publication. Here are the world maps for 1876-1900, and it's a long list with thumbnail images and publication details. But unfortunately, the image links don't work! It's really a shame this site is not maintained but with some searching you may be able to track down images on archive.org or elsewhere.

Here are a few other sites with searchable collections of historical maps, and some relevant examples I found on each with just a quick search.

• http://www.historicmapworks.com/
  • The World Chart, revised 1887
  • The World Map, 1893
• https://www.davidrumsey.com/
  • World in Mercator's Projection, 1886
  • World Mercator Projection, 1890