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Historical Urban Atlases of Massachusetts Towns at the BPL: Home

An overview of urban atlases of Massachusetts towns other than Boston at the Leventhal Map Center at the BPL

Norman B. Leventhal Map Center - Hours

See the Norman B. Leventhal Map & Education Center gallery hours, special hours, and research hours on their website.

Remote Reference and Research Services:
https://www.leventhalmap.org/research/

How Do I See the Atlases?

Schedule an appointment to view specific materials at readingroom.bpl.org.

If you aren’t sure what you’d like to see, write to us! Our staff are happy to help you search for items relevant to your interests.

Related Resources

Historical Urban Atlases of Massachusetts at the BPL

This guide is meant to be a starting point for anyone interested in using urban atlases. Here, you will find information relevant to the collections of the Norman B. Leventhal Map & Education Center (LMEC) at the Boston Public Library. For urban atlases of Boston or more information about major publishers, see the Historical Urban Atlases of Boston guide.

What are Historical Urban Atlases?

City atlases published for the fire insurance and real estate industries in the United States during the 19th and 20th centuries provide information about historical urban neighborhoods down to the building-level. The LMEC’s best coverage is for Boston, with approximately 60 volumes, ranging from 1861 through to the 1920s, but also includes corrections, or “paste-ups,” updating the maps to the 1960s. In addition, the LMEC holds scattered real estate atlases for other Massachusetts cities such as Brookline, Cambridge, Lynn, Quincy, Somerville, Springfield, and Worcester. For most of these localities there are one or two atlas editions, usually dated in the late 19th or early 20th centuries.

Suggestions for Using Urban Atlases

Historical urban atlases can become very helpful to use and fun to explore. Here are five suggestions for making the most of these atlases:

  1. Use the spatial index. Most fire insurance and real estate atlases published after the 1880s included a spatial index that helps determine which atlas plate shows a specific location.
  2. Take your time situating the plates into your existing knowledge of the area. Each of these atlases contain several plates which can get confusing. 
  3. Do not judge the atlas by its title. While the atlases are usually organized by neighborhood, many times certain areas are left out of the title even when they are contained within the atlas.
  4. Avoid the desire to save time by predicting what might be on an atlas plate based on another. The spatial coverage of each plate tends to vary from one edition to another so always consult the spatial indexes for each edition.
  5. Do not hesitate to ask a librarian or specialist for help.