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It’s a big day for map geeks! Here’s news about a new and large treasure chest of map content that is also free to download (hi-res) and use. Enjoy!

From the NYPL:

The Lionel Pincus & Princess Firyal Map Division is very proud to announce the release of more than 20,000 cartographic works as high resolution downloads. We believe these maps have no known US copyright restrictions.* To the extent that some jurisdictions grant NYPL an additional copyright in the digital reproductions of these maps, NYPL is distributing these images under a Creative Commons CC0 1.0 Universal Public Domain Dedication. [Clip] Though not required, if you’d like to credit the New York Public Library, please use the following text “From The Lionel Pincus & Princess Firyal Map Division, The New York Public Library.” Doing so helps us track what happens when we release collections like this to the public for free under really relaxed and open terms. We believe our collections inspire all kinds of creativity, innovation and discovery, things the NYPL holds very dear.

Some of What You’ll Find

How to Access the Maps

Learn More About Map Warper Here and Here

The full blog post has more about some of the projects that digitized these as well as this disclaimer about there use:

The maps may be subject to rights of privacy, rights of publicity and other restrictions. It is your responsibility to make sure that you respect these rights.

Kudos to Matt Knutzen for his intro blog post as well as the two other informative posts (linked above) about Map Warper.