This collection provides open access to digitized historical maps at the 1:50,000 scale, covering towns, cities, and rural areas in Canada over the period of 1948 to the early 21st century. The project adds 1000s of topographic maps to Dataverse's collective digital historical research data holdings. Historical topographic maps of Canada are used by researchers interested in examining changes over time, such as urban sprawl, transportation development, diminishing woodlots, and shoreline erosion.

More historical maps and map-based navigational indexes can be found in Scholars GeoPortal, a digital repository of geospatial data resources maintained and curated by university libraries. For more information about historical topographic maps in academic libraries, you may also want to consult the Ontario Historical Topographic Maps Project website , a valuable resource for finding and using historical topographic maps.

Please note that the map sheet names do not always correspond to a current place name. For example, all early maps of London, ON were titled Lucan or St. Thomas. If you are unable to find the place you are looking for by using the search box below, consult Natural Resources Canada’s name search to find the NTS number for that location. You can also search for maps by accessing the map indexes directly in the Scholars GeoPortal. Consult the website's resources Using the Maps section for more information on using the map indexes and searching for maps in Scholars GeoPortal.