To contact Alabama Maps, please email alabama.maps@ua.edu for questions about copyright, obtaining full-resolution files, or with any questions about our current transition.
Alabama Maps has been providing maps to the public online since 2000. Our goal is to provide access to the
University of Alabama's map collection in the hopes of promoting and supporting geographic research and
education.
Although most of our collection focuses on historic Alabama, our collection spans the entire globe from
the 1600s to the mid-2010s. Highlights of our collection include historical aerial photography from the
1930-1990s, many of the maps published by the Geological Survey of Alabama, and many world and regional maps
from historic atlases. As we grow, we hope to provide access to even more Alabama geospatial data and resources.
Alabama Maps was created and maintained by the UA Cartography Lab until 2023. We thank the generosity and commitment of everyone who worked in the lab or has contributed time, content, or funds over the last two decades, as this site was made possible by all of you.Additionally, many institutions around Alabama and the country have contributed to this project. Over 20 Graduate Research Assistants funded through the Cartography Lab hand-coded this website over the last 20 years.
In addition, many institutions have shared their maps with this project - see the full list of sources here.
This web site is divided into four main sections:
the Historical Map Index,
the Contemporary Map Index,
the Aerial Photography Index,
and Interactive Maps.
We also host the downloads for the Historical Atlas of Alabama: Volume I: Historical Locations by County
and Volume II: Cemeteries by County.
FAQs
Why does Alabama Maps look different?
We are pleased to announce that the University of Alabama Libraires has become the newest caretaker for Alabama Maps website, Cartography Lab assetts, and Map Library.
As we work to process all this information, we appreciate your patience. The first goal is to keep the website and maps accessible – so you may notice some changes on this website over the next few months as we update the website's codebase.
We are aware that the interactive map section is not currently working, but if you notice anything else broken, please send us an email.
Can I get a full-resolution file of a map? Can I use it in a publication? What is the copyright?
Please see our Map Request page for more information.
The Cartography Lab used to do ------.
| Service | Contact |
|---|---|
| General Questions about Alabama Maps, the Map Library, Geospatial Data, Copyright, Scanning, etc. | Please send us an email at alabama.maps@ua.edu or contact our Research Data & Geographic Information Librarian, Brittany Waltemate, at bgwaltemate@ua.edu |
| Poster Printing for UA Students, Faculty, and Staff | Unfortunately we are no longer able to provide printing services at this time. Please contact Crimson Copies 1815 The University of Alabama Student Center Phone: (205) 348-6544 Fax: (205) 348-4430 Email: crimsoncopies@ua.edu |
| On-demand or project-based Cartographic Design or GIS Analysis | Unfortunately we are no longer able to offer custom cartography. If you are a part of the UA Community, please email us for additional options. |
| Map Requests and Publishing | Please see our Map Request page for more information.
Legal requests can be directed to Michael Aurthur, Senior Associate Dean, at maarthur@ua.edu |
What do the different sections mean?
Contemporary Map Index
The Contemporary Map collection contains the Cartographic Research Lab’s computer-generated maps.
Most of these maps were created c. 2010, so they are technically contemporary, but not recent.
Historical Map Index The Historical Map Index is a digitized collection of selected map holdings from the University of Alabama Map Library, the W. S. Hoole Special Collections Library , the Rucker Agee Collection of the Birmingham Public Library, the Geological Survey of Alabama, and the Alabama Department of Archives and History, and several private collections. We are indebted to these organizations for their cooperation in facilitating the introduction of these digitial maps to the Internet.
Aerial Photography Index
The Aerial Photography Index contains a digitized selection of historic aerial photography found at the
Geological Survey of Alabama and the University of Alabama Map Library.
The photos found in this index are but a small part of the total collection of nearly 150,000 photographs
housed in these facilities. Please send us an email if you wish to have any of our not-listed images
scanned.
The scale of these photographs vary due to the altitude of flight, but most have a scale of about 1:20,000.
Ineractive Maps The interactive portion of this website contains a variety of web maps created c.. 2012. We are hoping to update these in the future with more recent data and functionality, but until then be aware of the outdated data.
What can we do to help?
We thank the community for their continued support over the last few years during this awkward transition. Without your interest and testimonials, the future of this website would have been much more uncertain.
As we try to breathe new life into Alabama Maps, we would be appreciative to hear any support or feedback you may have by emailing alabama.maps@ua.edu.
If you have used our maps in any projects, publications, or personal research, we would love to hear about it for our own documentation!