OpenHistoricalMap/Projects

OpenHistoricalMap is informally organized into community projects that focus on specific places or themes in the map across time. These projects are documented here to coordinate efforts and serve as a starting point for research.

Structure of a project

A typical project page includes:

  • Context about why the place or theme is of interest
  • A description of what has been mapped so far
  • Priorities for improving coverage
  • Online resources to consult when mapping
  • Sources of imported data (or potential sources)

Creating a project page is a good way to attract other mappers to collaborate with you in building up local coverage.

Themes

The following projects are distributed widely and not necessarily associated with standard geographic areas:

Geographies

Global

  • Countries - List of currently sovreign countries for easy viewing and downloading

Empires

  • British Empire - Boundary changes (1533-1997) | Completed on Feb 07, 2025
  • Dutch Empire - Boundary changes (1595-1975)
  • German Empire - Boundary changes (1884-1920)
  • Holy Roman Empire - All things related to the Holy Roman Empire.
  • Mongol Empire - Growth, splintering, decline
  • Roman Empire - Roman Kingdom through the Roman Empire and into Eastern and Western Roman Empire
  • Spanish Empire - Boundary changes (1492-1976)
  • Colonial Empires - From the discovery of the Americas by the Spanish to the last remnants of the British and French Empires.

Africa

Egypt

Tunisia

Asia

Cambodia

China

Hong Kong

India

  • Modern India rivers and waterways cleanup
  • Modern India admin boundaries

Iran (Persia)

Iraq

Israel

Japan

Korea

Philippines

  • Metro Manila - Development of Metropolitan Manila
  • Baguio - Development of the City of Baguio

Sri Lanka

Türkiye (Turkey)

Vietnam

Europe

  • Muninn WW1 - WW1 Trench Geometries / Artillery emplacements.

Romans

Austria

Bosnia and Herzegovina

Croatia

Czech Republic

Denmark

Estonia

  • Tartu - City from 1880-1960 based on snapshots from historical maps

Latvia

Finland

  • Helsinki 1907 - Transport routing at 1900
  • Helsinki - City plan 1820

France

  • Nancy - City of Nancy, France
  • Orléans - City of Orléans, France
  • Rennes - City of Rennes, France

Germany

Greece

Hungary

Italy

Netherlands

Norway

Poland

Portugal

Romania

Russia

Spain

  • Highways in Spain (miscellaneous newspaper articles)
  • Madrid
    • Flamenco Map of Madrid's notable flamenco performance establishments, called tablaos

Serbia

Switzerland

Sweden

Ukraine

United Kingdom

  • Derby - mapping the development of Derby
  • London - mapping the development of London
  • Scottish Boundaries - historical administrative units of Scotland
  • Snow's Map - Soho at time of John Snow's Cholera work
  • Trumpington - The architectural history of Trumpington. route

North America

Canada

  • Toronto - Development of Toronto and surroundings from the early 19th C to the present
  • Metro Vancouver - Development of Vancouver, surrounding cities, and the University of British Columbia to the present

Central America

Mexico

United States of America

  • Green Books - importing datasets related to the Negro Motorist and Negro Travelers' Green Books (1936-66)
  • Railway - Railroads of North America
  • Time zone boundaries
  • US Post Offices - potential import of the Blevins-Helbock Historic Post Office Database
  • US Forest Service - From the first Forest Reserves designated in 1891 through the designation as National Forests in 1905, as well as special projects such as the Civilian Conservation Corps, Experiment Forests and Ranges, Wilderness and other notable historical aspects.
US Historical Trails
  • Colonizing Trails West - Routes of the mass migration west. (Wagon Roads)
  • Oregon Trail - to trace the route or routes of the migration west known as the Oregon Trail
US Historical Roads
US Historical Boundaries
US Historical Natural Features
US Historical Events
Arkansas
  • Pulaski Heights A 20th Century Streetcar Suburb in Little Rock, 1888 - 1962
California
Indiana
Maine
  • Maine Central Railroad & Portland Terminal Company - Data sourced from 1916 Valuation Maps
Maryland
Massachusetts
Michigan
  • Michigan - Places, roads, administrative boundaries of the state of Michigan, including development of Detroit and environs from the early 19th C to the present
Nevada
  • Burning Man - 2008 and 2009 maps of Burning Man festival from OSM
New Hampshire
  • New Hampshire - Mapping roads and buildings of the state of New Hampshire, from 1892 to today
New York
Ohio
Oklahoma
  • Oklahoma State Highway Maps
Rhode Island
Virginia
Washington
Wisconsin
  • Wisconsin - Mapping roads, places, and administrative boundaries of the state of Wisconsin

Oceania

Australia

Pacific

South America

  • Buenos Aires - Development of city in late 19th C, early 20th C. Initial city stripping prototype.

As yet unsorted

  • Linked Data - Linked data show/use case and tagging proposal from OpenHistoricalMap.

Proposed

Potential

No one is working on these (yet). If you're not sure what you want to do in OHM, consider them.

  • West 9th Street, Little Rock, Arkansas - A vibrant African-American business and entertainment district in the 1920s and 1930s. See the Arkansas PBS film Dream Land or read about West Ninth Street
  • Tulsa's Black Wall Street as it was
  • Defunct Confederate Memorials in the US
  • Ilwaco Railway and Navigation Company
  • Auto Trails - Many highways in the old Auto Trails system need to be mapped

See also

  • Quick OHM Map Links – visit some of the best-mapped sites in OpenHistoricalMap
  • Resources – imagery and other online resources that are useful to multiple projects in general
  • Reuse – instructions on incorporating OpenHistoricalMap data into your own creative project and some examples

External links

This article is issued from OpenStreetMap Wiki. The text is available under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 2.0 license unless otherwise noted. Additional terms may apply for the media files.