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Preserving the past and advancing the future of maps

Learn about our collections

Inspiring learning through map education

Resources for teachers and students

Digital humanities bring geography alive

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Reference and research for everyone

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What’s new?

For everyone

We offer a wide spectrum of services and activities for the general public

For K-12 teachers

Our educator resources support teachers in fields ranging from geography and social studies to STEM and world history

For researchers

Our collections open up countless ways of exploring people and places around the world, and we welcome researchers from all walks of life

Digital tools

Explore our collections and discover the world of historical geography from home

Search digital collections

Make a quick search of our main Digital Collections portal. For more, see Searching the Collections.

How do we know what’s true in a map?

Our new digital exhibition, Bending Lines: Maps and Data from Distortion to Deception, looks at how maps and visual information construct the truth — or at least what the mapmaker wants you to believe is the truth.

Explore the exhibition

Upcoming Events

Mapping and Placing 18th Century Roxbury in the Atlantic World
17
Apr

Mapping and Placing 18th Century Roxbury in the Atlantic World

Boston By Map 4/21
21
Apr

Boston By Map 4/21

Maptivists at MA Civic Learning Week
27
Apr

Maptivists at MA Civic Learning Week

All events

Articles

Peoples of the Pacific

Peoples of the Pacific

In a Rodgers and Hammerstein musical and a Covarrubias anthropological map, portrayals of ethnic diversity raise questions about images and stereotypes

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