We are in the last quarter of maps of this BL Georeferencer release.  I always like to review at this stage what has been accomplished and what remains. The maps left can be the most difficult ones, so those who like a challenge and want to undertake some tricky online research, this is your time!

Some of my picks for greatest challenges:

Hand drawn! Transliterated from a non-Roman alphabet! On its side!

This map is from W.J. Reid's account of his exploration of western China and eastern Tibet, Through Unexplored Asia. It depicts a mountainous and relatively remote area in central China. There are not a great number of placenames for this area in online maps, and even these may not be spelled the same as the handwritten map labels. Thanks to the volunteer ("digger"), who solved it by using the lat-long references on the map.

I should add that no-one likes a map on its side - one participant said "Help me please, before I need to visit my chiropractor"! Unfortunately, because these maps were semi-automatically extracted from the texts and posted online, this is not an option for now.

Early mapping! Medieval script! Book in Hungarian!

This map is a reproduction of a medieval map within an 1895 book in Hungarian, A magyar nemzet tortenete. 

Unless the map is already familiar to them, the participant will need to read the Hungarian text and decipher the map's medieval handwriting to place it - not a straightforward demand. (This one is still available, so Hungarian-speaking medievalist georeferencers, come forward!)

For every difficult map, however, there may be numerous more familiar ones.

This map of Essex is one of 46 from the 1813 Topographical Dictionary of the United Kingdom.

If you've a talent for geography and curiosity about historic places and spaces, your input to BL Georeferencer will be valuable indeed. There are 762 maps remaining, waiting to be placed! 

 

We are pleased with the amazing progress georeferencing the maps released last week in BL Georeferencer. In just five days, 30 percent - nearly 1,000 - of the maps were placed. 

This set of mainly 19th-century maps from books is a fine representation of publishing activity and reader interests at the time. The publishing industry had grown and diversified to what we recognise today, and popular topics included: travel; geography textbooks and school atlases; histories; and contemporary exploration and military accounts. The maps are familiar, but eminently of their time.

(The Competitive Geography Fourth ed. London: Longmans, Green and Co, 1874.  British Library Shelfmark HMNTS 10005.bb.3. Download pdf of atlas online)

A surge of school atlases were published in Britain during the 1800s to educate the young, and it is no surprise that the British Empire figures largely. The above detail of "Sketch map of South Africa" is from page 419 of The Competitive Geography. The British Territories are named in the text as Cape Colony, Griqaaland West, Natal, and the Transvaal. Note “New Scotland”.

Contemporary accounts of military actions and histories, which usually featured maps and diagrams of troop movements and positions, also feature.   

From the uniquely-titled History of the United States from the Compromise of 1850 to the final restoration of Home Rule at the South in 1877.

The overlay above indicates the locations of infantry and artillery during the first battle of Manassas (1861), a determinate early conflict in the US Civil War. The area is now a National Park, and those boundaries, along with the crossroads, make the present-day area appear releatively unchanged.

Part of the Carlist Wars in the Basque region of Spain, this “Plan of the town and vicinity of Bilbao, showing the positions occupied by the besiegers, during the siege of Oct ^23rd – Dec 25^th 1836" also derives from a published personal account, Six Years in Biscay: comprising a personal narrative of the sieges of Bilbao in June 1835... during the years 1830 to 1837.

While the city and course of the river have changed hugely since the 1830s, the contours indicating mountains on the original map match to the shaded ridge visible in the Google Terrain base layer of BL Georeferencer below, making the location apparent.

To explore what maps from 19th-century books are available to georeference, and search for yourself, visit the British Library maps subset in Flickr. There are links to georeference from below each image included in this release. See what you can discover and place!

To see the maps already placed, go to BL Georeferencer.

Help us identify the locations of historic maps by participating in the largest release yet of BL Georeferencer. Over 3,100 maps, previously hidden within the pages of 17th, 18th, and 19th century books, are now available to georeference and overlay on modern mapping at

http://www.bl.uk/maps/

This set consists of the maps that the Library released to the public domain via Flickr.  All the illustrations in the books scanned by Microsoft - which included the themes of travel and geography - were extracted from the texts; once the images were posted to Flickr, the public assigned tags. Over the months that the tagging went on, we were thrilled to find a huge amount were maps, but are left with the question: "where in the world...?"

We have alot of work to do. Please help us identify the locations of these maps by participating in this release of BL Georeferencer!

The British Library peleton has cruised nonchalantly into the British Library in Yorkshire. Rejoice now those of you who do not have to cycle home!

It is heartening to find that the mid 16th century map coped with the challenge. Tadcaster, Selby, Grantham, Much Hadham, most of the places visited are marked on the 'Anglia Figura'. The route has been taken innumerable times over many hundreds of years, not all of them quite so fast. Looking again at the red line of the cyclists' route, it appears on the one hand a desparately long way, but at the same time, given the speediness of technology and transport, quite a short distance to go.

But I would say that, because I haven't just cycled 200 miles in 25 hours over two days.  

 

The sea of bikes has swept into historic Selby and the home leg. The end is in sight. George has forgotten how many stages he has won, and besides, everyone's in yellow (though my money's still on George at the finish line). One triumphant stage to go!

 

Skilfully avoiding the numerous power stations in this region, the riders have reached Epworth. 

Our brave riders fly through the Lincolnshire countryside at an electric pace.

The team limp towards Newark where they must get repairs to a 'snapped gear hanger', which sounds awfully painful. They do still, however, manage to enjoy the beautiful scenery and stop at all pedestrian crossings.

Around 41 k accomplished.

They cycled, oh how they cycled. The Tour de British Library meandered, weaved, jinked and possibly even jived, and in the dark arrived last night in Grantham, 225 k from their starting point on the Euston Road 13 hours earlier.

Today is a new day. The lycra band's quest to ye Boston Spa is given fresh impetus due to, amongst other things, it not being quite so far away, but also because of the many riders who have travelled down from the British Library north to cycle the 171.6 k back with them.

Amongst them shall be Kevin, who solved my latest computer glitch yesterday and will be sitting at the head of the peleton. All follow Kevin, if you know what's good for you.

As with yesterday, their track shall be accurately plotted stage-by-stage on the 'Anglia Figura' of 1536-7, one of the British Library's great cartographic treasures.

Onward!