Maps, Atlases and Gazetteers - Reference Works

Maps

Many of the library's sheet maps are kept in the Map Cabinet on Floor 1 of the Sir Duncan Rice Library.  Many very popular, and important, maps in the 19th century Six-Inch (1:10,560) series of Scotland have been bound:

• Aberdeenshire and Banffshire (in 2 volumes)
• Banff, Elgin and Nairn shires
• Inverness-shire (in 2 volumes)
• Forfarshire and Kincardineshire
• (Inverness-shire) Hebrides
• (Inverness-shire) Skye
• Sutherland
• Ross-shire and Cromartyshire
• Island of Lewis (Ross-shire)
• Perth(Shire)
• Caithness
• Orkney & Shetland

In folio section on Floor 3 there are ten more of these bound volumes of six-inch maps of Scotland: Northern Aberdeenshire; Southern Aberdeenshire; Kincardineshire; Ayrshire; Lanarkshire; Peebles-shire and Selkirkshire; Linlithgowshire, Edinburghshire and Haddingtonshire; Berwickshire and Roxburghshire; Argyllshire (Northern Central, and includes Inner Hebrides Tiree and Southern Mull); Argyllshire (North, and includes Inner Hebrides Coll and Northern Mull).

Atlases

Most of the library's printed atlas collection is in closed access storage and can be requested. Some of the atlases are:

Blaeu's: the grand atlas of the 17th century a911 Bla
Civitates: Europe. Street maps. 1618 (3 volumes) a911 Bra
Mercator, Hondius: World. 1636 (3 volumes) a911 Mer
Barrington atlas of the Greek and Roman world a911.38 Tal
Historical atlas of Canada (3 volumes) a911.71 His
Atlas of the world's languages a912 Ash
Oxford economic atlas of the world a912 Oxf
The Times comprehensive atlas of the world a912 Tim
World atlas of desertification a912 Uni
The Times atlas and encyclopaedia of the sea a912.162 Tim
Roy's: Scotland. Historical. 1747 a912.41 Roy
Scotland. O.S. 19th century: Six-inch maps (1:10,560) (14 bound volumes) a912.411 Ord
Ordnance Survey statlas UK: a statistical atlas of the United Kingdom a912.42 Ord
Reader's Digest: Britain. 1965 a912.42 Rea
The population atlas of China a912.51 Chi
The national atlas of Korea a912.5195 Nat
War Department: U.S. Historical. 1891 a912.73 Dav
National atlas: U.S. Industrial. 1970 a912.73 Nat

Gazetteers

Placename indexes are an essential adjunct to maps. The best descriptions are in the new Columbia gazetteer of the world, in 3 volumes at a910.3 Col. The 2000 edition of the Times atlas of the world has over 200,000 names. For Britain, the index to John Roque's 1746 plan of London was unique in its time.

• Global explorer, on CD-ROM, has 142,000 placenames.
• The National Library of Australia provides links to various world online gazetteers at http://www.nla.gov.au/map/worldgazetteers.html#
• US Official standard names gazetteer is available in the Map Room.
• Richard Hooker's Pathfinder gazetteer, derived from the 1:25,000 Pathfinder series of the early 1990s, covers Scotland in 20 volumes. These and several others are kept in the Map Room.
• Digimap Gazetteer, part of the online map service Edina Digimap, holds all placenames which appear on the current Ordnance Survey 1:50,000 Landranger series maps. It is available to staff and students of this university, following registration. Ask at Floor 3 Office in the Sir Duncan Rice Library for details.