Great Lakes Maps

Take a look at Great Lakes online exhibits, brought to you by Wisconsin's Water Library and University of Wisconsin Sea Grant.

Making Maps, Mapping History
This exhibit traces the evolution of mapmaking since the 1600s and the historical influence of the Great Lakes on the history of Wisconsin. The original maps were collected for an exhibit at the University of Wisconsin-Madison Memorial Library Department of Special Collections, March 19 through June 29, 2007.

The maps are from the UW-Milwaukee American Geographical Society (AGS) Library and the UW-Madison Space Science and Engineering Center. The AGS Library is one of North America’s foremost geography and map collections. The Space Science and Engineering Center includes one of the first remote sensing facilities in the United States.

U.S. Lake Survey
In 1841, Congress created the Lake Survey within the U.S. Army Topographical Engineers, which later became part of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. The Survey, based in Detroit, Mich., was charged with conducting a hydrographical survey of the Northern and Northwestern Lakes and preparing and publishing nautical charts and other navigation aids. The Lake Survey published its first charts in 1852. In 1882, after producing 76 charts, it had completed its Congressional mandate.

This pioneering effort eventually grew into a comprehensive program of scientific investigations and monitoring of the Great Lakes conducted through NOAA’s Great Lakes Environmental Research Laboratory (GLERL) in Ann Arbor, Mich.