MAGIC's Paper Map Collection

Beyond our digital collection MAGIC has one of the largest map collections in the Northeast. The collection is focused on maps of Connecticut and the Northeast. The following will describe some of the highlights of our paper collection.

Connecticut Maps - Town-by-Town

Located in the research room, MAGIC houses a large collection of Connecticut town maps for each of its 169 towns. These maps include agricultural maps, historical road maps and historical census maps that come from a variety of sources. The numbers and types of maps varies for each town.

USGS Topographic Quadrangle Sheets

MAGIC is a repository for USGS topographic quadrangle sheets. Located in MAGIC's reading room, the maps are organized by state and are available whenever the library is open.

Atlases and maps from around the world

MAGIC's collection of regional, thematic, and historical atlases represent areas from around the world ranging from Nirenstein National Realty Atlases of the United States, Historical Connecticut Atlases, National Atlases from a number of nations, and even Atlases of Galaxies.

MAGIC also is home to a large collection of books regarding cartography, GIS technologies, historical mapping, and regional guidebooks.

The maps in MAGIC are in a number of languages such as Russian, Japanese, Arabic, and French. For more information about MAGIC's paper map and atlas collection please contact us at 860-486-4589.

Scanning and Digitizing our paper map collection

Since May of 2007 MAGIC has scanned over 8,000 maps from its collection. These maps have included New York-New Haven Railroad maps, Connecticut geology maps, historical town maps of Connecticut, and a number of other collections. Many of these maps will find there way onto the MAGIC site as our new online mapping tools develop.