Cornell University Library Digital Collections
Historical Campus Maps of Cornell University
About this collection
The Historical Campus Maps of Cornell University digital collection contains a selection of 32 maps and infographics from the Cornell University maps collection held by the Library’s Division of Rare and Manuscript Collections. They show the development of the Cornell University campus and surrounding area between the years of 1896 and 2002. Maps in the collection may have been designed for navigation as well as for providing additional information about the University or for display.
Historical context
The 32 maps in this collection were selected by Jon Parmenter, Associate Professor, History and Dusti Bridges, Ph.D. 2025, Anthropology, and were digitized in 2023 as part of a larger digital project examining Cornell University’s relationship to former Indigenous lands received under the Morrill Act of 1862 and the role that revenues from those lands played in Cornell’s institutional growth to the present day.
Additional materials from the Division of Rare and Manuscript Collections were selected and digitized, including a number of ledgers from the Cornell University Western Lands Records and two published volumes. The ledgers detail the early income and expenses of the University, land contracts, and maps of Cornell-owned land in Wisconsin. The two published volumes examine early lands and buildings of the University, including those demolished as the University expanded. Those additional materials can be found in HathiTrust:
- Cornell University Western Lands Records
- Cornell University First Century Lands and Buildings, 1867-1967
- Cornell University Lands and Buildings, June 30, 1966; Demolished Buildings to June 30, 1967
Using the collection
For more information about the collection, please contact the Division of Rare and Manuscript Collections at rareref@cornell.edu.
More information
- Collection steward
- Evan Earle, Peter J. Thaler University Archivist
- Metadata creation
- Dusti Bridges, Ph.D., 2025; Cornell University Library
- Funding
- Grants Program for Digital Collections, 2022; awarded to Jon Parmenter, Associate Professor, Department of History; Dusti Bridges, Ph.D. 2025; Marina Zafiris, PhD candidate, Information Science.
- Credits
- This collection overview was prepared in 2025.