National Geographic’s Maps Archive

National Geographic is making digital copies of its century-plus archive of maps available to the public… with a twist. Immediate access to the full archive is subscriber-only. The rest of us get a new map a day, on Twitter, Instagram, or Facebook.

So you might get this gorgeous 1961 panorama of London, with individual hand-painted buildings…

… or you might get this 1894 sketch of Antarctica.

Which is not uninteresting, but it’s interesting for different reasons.

As a longtime advocate of digging in the crates, I have to applaud Nat Geo making creative use of its own archives. Even if the greedy part of me wants all the goodies at once.

• maps
• National Geographic