Mapping Boston Collection

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The Mapping Boston Foundation is devoted to the permanent stewardship of the personal map collection of the Boston developer and philanthropist Norman B. Leventhal. Based on his interest in maps and the stories they tell, he founded the Leventhal Map & Education Center at the Boston Public Library in 2004 with the mission of stewarding the Library's extensive map collection, providing broad public access free to all, and fostering curiosity and learning through cartographic education. Approximately 100 of his maps are included in this digital collection. The maps in this collection range from 15th century world maps produced during the Age of Exploration to many of the most important maps of Boston and New England in the colonial period and early republic. Many of these maps were also featured in the book Mapping Boston (MIT Press, 1999), in which appears a foreword from Leventhal describing the importance of maps for understanding urban history.