I just noticed that Arcanum Maps, a server with lots of historical maps of Europe, has now installed a paywall for its maps.
Which is a shame, since those maps were _really_ useful for my research of folkloric locations. Can anyone suggest any alternative?
Or perhaps tell me what their sources were for their standard "Europe in the 19th century" map layer?
@juergen_hubert Sources (mostly) Poland-centered, but as we have significant historical overlap with Germany/Austria, I hope they'd be useful; and many are not limited to Polish (any-when) territory.
Mapy z przeszłością by Institute of History, Polish Academy of Sciences. The interface is in Polish, but really simple, and maps are overlayed on OSM. “Mapy austriackie” are “Austrian maps” (though there's really just one, and barely readable), and “Mapy pruskie i niemieckie” – “Prussian and German maps”.
Stare Plany Miast - Nostalgiczna Strona Internetu City maps, mostly from current or historical Polish territory (but because of the overlap, should be useful).
Old maps of Poland and Central Europe - very comprehensive archive, though not exactly convenient to use. Has English and German version, but maps titles are not translated; on the other hand, there's place name search and sheet index.
Some historical maps are also on NID (National Heritage Institute) site, NID | Portal mapowy. The map shows heritage sites, but there are historical maps layers in Zawartość mapy » Warstwy » Mapy historyczne (IH PAN). These maps come from Institute of History, so there's significant overlap with Mapy z przeszłością, I haven't cross-checked if they are fully equivalent, though.
Digital Libraries Federation is a meta-search for Polish, well, digital libraries. Searching for “map” alone yields over 71k results.
Definitely! "Figuring out which old German place name now corresponds to which location in modern-day Poland" is one of my primary use cases for map research!
@juergen_hubert Here are legislative acts (in Polish, of course) regarding place names:
Akty prawne wg haseł – nazwy miejscowości i obiektów fizjograficznych.
I suppose the most useful will be those from 1946-47, esp. titled ”Zarządzenie Ministrów: Administracji Publicznej i Ziem Odzyskanych … o przywróceniu i ustaleniu urzędowych nazw miejscowości” (Joint Order of the Ministers of Public Administration and Recovered Territories … on the Restoration and Establishment of Official Place Names), that consist mostly of Polish-German name mapping, sorted alphabetically by German names. Unfortunately, these are scans of poor quality and without text layer, but still I hope they'd be useful; and it's probably the most comprehensive source.
Jürgen Hubert
Brie Mmm