The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) started printing beautiful paper maps of the American West in the 1860s. Then worked its way east until it finally got to:
Those are the USGS topo map quadrants that cover the Choptank River watershed (1:62500 scale). USGS is publishing its entire collection as digital images. Use their excellent TopoView finder map to see what’s published so far.
My web map here lets you compare the 1905 map with modern satellite imagery and the street map for Caroline County, like this:
Use the “Synchronize Scale & Location” buttons to move the three maps together or separately. You can compare different parts of the old map to what we see in Caroline County today.
Or take a look at the larger 1905 map here. Use the transparency slider to map reveal the modern map beneath.
See all the Choptank River Heritage historic maps:
[ Interested in the GIS? Read more about USGS GeoPDF image geoprocessing. ]