They've made 20,000 maps available for free download. As a person who enjoys maps, especially city type maps (I'm a gamer so always like cool maps for my games ), I found this fascinating.

http://www.nypl.org/blog/2014/03/28/open-access-maps

The one from the article, below, is particularly cool. Make sure you check out the legend on the far left side center before zooming in and checking out all the homes. Particularly offensive outhouses (outhouses?), stables. All the coal yards. Plenty of liquor stores, churches, groceries, etc. Plus listings of homes with typhoid, small pox, and unhealthy locations (insalubrious ).

http://digitalcollections.nypl.org/items/fc8b9560-f3a1-0130-679f-58d385a7b928

Pretty cool. When I wander up and down Pearl Street Mall in Boulder, I'll always stop in at the map store just to see what they have so I'll be spending a bunch of time here.

Carl

Great find Carl! I sometimes think I should have been a cartagrapher. I love maps.