This week, we are looking at a map of the city of Groningen from 1895. The map shows the streets in the center, the cemetery outside the wawlls, and the surrounding countryside. An inset map displays the changes between 1863 and 1888, when the city walls were demolished and new streets created on the southside of the city. Groningen was one of many places in the Netherlands where the old fortifications and town walls were demolished in the second half of the nineteenth century. Improvements … [Read more...]
Map of the Week – Limburg, 1659
10 March 2025 by Leave a Comment
In 1659, the famous mapmaker Joan Blaeu published his world atlas Tooneel des Aardrycks [Display of the Realm of Earth]. The archives in Leiden have made their atlas available online. This week we are looking at Blaeu's map of the Duchy of Limburg. In the east, we can see the river Meuse [Maas in Dutch, "Mosa Fluvius" on the map] connecting the cities of Maastricht ("Maestricht") and Luik ("Luyck vel Liege"). Limburg is in the higher part of the Netherlands, so we see more woods and hills, … [Read more...]
Map of the Week – Groningen, 1659
3 February 2025 by Leave a Comment
In 1659, the famous mapmaker Joan Blaeu published his world atlas Tooneel des Aardrycks [Display of the Realm of Earth]. The archives in Leiden have made their atlas available online. This week we are looking at Blaeu's map of the province of Groningen. It shows its largest city as the same-named Groningen ("Gronningen" on the map), connected to the North Sea by the Reitdiep. The map shows the roads and rivers that connected the smaller towns. See the research guide for Groningen for more … [Read more...]
Map of the Week – World War I map
13 January 2025 by Leave a Comment
This week's map dates from World War I and is part of a larger series showing military activity. This particular map shows the activity until 7 October 1914. The Netherlands was neutral during World War I, as shown by the green color on the map. The map shows how close the activity got, with a sunken U-boat off the coast of Scheveningen, and various battles just across the border in Belgium. Although the Netherlands did not participate in the war, it did affect the lives of Dutch … [Read more...]
Map of the Week – Nautical Chart of the Zeeland and Holland Coast
6 January 2025 by Leave a Comment
This week we are looking at a nautical chart made by Pieter Goos from an atlas published between 1666 and 1683. It shows the access routes to the South Holland and Zeeland rivers and cities. The chart was intended for sailors to set their course. It is oriented with the north on the left, as you can see in the compass. The different compass points allowed navigators to determine the headings to navigate the waters. The chart also showed the depths and channels to take to safely make it to … [Read more...]
Map of the Week – Factories and Businesses in Enschede, 1930
30 December 2024 by 2 Comments
This week we're looking at a map of factories and businesses in Enschede in 1930. Before 1839, the textile industry of the Netherlands was mostly concentrated in the southern Netherlands. When Belgium split off in 1839, this offered new opportunities for textile manufacturers in the (northern) Netherlands since import tarriffs made Belgian goods more expensive for Dutch consumers. Enschede was one of the places where a flourishing textile industry developed after 1839. This map marks … [Read more...]
Map of the Week – Joure and Heremastate, circa 1700
24 December 2024 by Leave a Comment
This week's map takes us to Joure in Friesland. The map shows the village of Joure and the nearby Heremastate, a manor house. In Friesland, a state was a manor, typically owned by a patrician or noble family. These families would often buy properties in the area that had voting rights in the provincial assembly, making them more powerful. Even if you do not descend from these families yourself, your Frisian ancestors may have dealt with them as magistrates, employers, or landlords. … [Read more...]
Map of the week – Krimpenerwaard water board, 1792
19 December 2024 by 1 Comment
This map shows the water board of Krimpenerwaard, the area around Schoonhoven, south of Gouda in the current province of South Holland. See the waterschap blog post to learn more about water boards. The map shows the different polders and streams in the water board's district. The map can help you locate ancestral properties if the polder is noted in land records. Note that the map is oriented with the north at the bottom of the map, as you can see in the compass. The vignette shows that … [Read more...]
Map of the Week – Brabant, 1659
9 December 2024 by Leave a Comment
In 1659, the famous mapmaker Joan Blaeu published his world atlas Tooneel des Aardrycks [Display of the Realm of Earth]. The archives in Leiden have made their atlas available online. This map shows the Duchy of Brabant. It is oriented with the north toward the right. You can see that various places that are now part of the province of North Brabant, such as the area around Willemstad and Heusden, were then part of the province of Holland (outlined in pink). The former Duchy of Brabant is now … [Read more...]
Map of the Week – Dikes and Dunes near Petten, 1730
25 November 2024 by Leave a Comment
This week, we are looking at a map of the area south of Petten in the province of Holland (now North-Holland) in 1730. The water board commissioned the map from Jan Spruytenburgh and Hendrik de Leth. The map tells the history of the landscape, and reclaiming the land to create polders. On the left side, we see the smaller polders surrounding by dikes, created in the medieval period. On the right, we see the large polder of the Zijpe, one of the first industrial-scale commercial reclamations, … [Read more...]
