Hiemcke’s giant manuscript map of Suriname (1830)

Recently, Leiden University Libraries was able to purchase a unique manuscript map of Suriname, drawn by Helmuth Hendrik Hiemcke in 1830. A missing link in Surinamese mapping history.

Martijn Storms • November 14, 2023

World history as river delta: The first Stream of Times-map

A new map genre emerged in the 19th century: the Stream of Times-map, depicting history as a system of dividing and converging rivers. Friedrich Strass published 'Der Strom der Zeiten' in 1803, considered a first of its kind. Dutchman Johan Willem Scheele, however, designed one a century earlier.

Martijn Storms • November 22, 2022

Re-use of maps in times of paper scarcity during WW2

During the Second World War availability of paper was limited, so the backsides of old topographic map sheets were re-used to print new maps. The UBL Special Collections hold a complete series of WWII maps of the Netherlands, several of which were printed on the the backsides of older maps.

Martijn Storms • February 09, 2021

Mapping epidemics: nineteenth-century cholera maps of Leiden

In the nineteenth century, cholera outbreaks struck several cities in the Netherlands. Mapmakers struggled to aggregate the complex data gathered about the disease into clear cartographic images, a problem cartographers struggle with even today.

Martijn Storms • June 04, 2020

Maps with flaps

Berkhey’s time travel map of northern Holland and the Haarlemmermeer (c. 1778): a GIS avant la lettre

Martijn Storms • February 26, 2019

Bahía lost, Sluis regained

Alternative facts in 1625: an unknown newsprint of the Spanish capturing the city of Salvador in Brazil illustrated with a re-used woodcut of the siege of Sluis

Martijn Storms • October 17, 2013