How it All Began … 
BR Internet seized an exciting business opportunity when it joined forces with Maps of the Past.
Maps of the Past, a family-owned business established in December 2002, was getting too big for one family to manage. When the company started, the whole family got involved, pooling founder David’s extensive knowledge of historical maps with family members’ computer and marketing expertise. Innocently believing that historical map reproduction would be a fairly simple venture, the family soon learned otherwise! Finding no printing companies capable of creating high-quality reproduction prints of their fabulous historical treasures, they immediately added a printing & graphic arts specialist to round out the team and invested in the finest graphic arts software and best wide-format printer available.

Today
Having joined forces with BR Internet, Maps of the Past boasts cutting-edge equipment and techniques — and years of experience in restoring and creating sharp, full color reproductions of antique posters and prints.
Thousands of customers later, Maps of the Past offers more than 10,000 maps — Civil War and Revolutionary War battle maps, vintage panoramic maps, historic usgs topo maps, antique city, county, and state maps — we have the largest selection online and have become a global leader in historical map sales. Maps of the Past is your one-stop shopping destination for high-quality State, County, City, International, Railroad, Mining, Revolutionary and Civil War, Topographic, Transportation, and Panoramic maps dating back to the sixteenth century. Our team expertly and efficiently fills orders one to of 5,000 maps or more, providing satisfied customers with breathtaking, state-of-the-art “giclee” prints.
Call our toll-free phone number Monday thru Friday, 11:00 AM – 5:00 PM CST with your questions and shop around the clock online at Maps of the Past. Growth has not gone to our heads! Each customer is treated as an individual and every order is still packed by hand with care.

A Passion for Historical Maps
Sure, we need to eat, pay the mortgage, put gas in our cars … but we are not really in this business for the money. We are in it for the love, the passion we have for these maps! Our staff lovingly inspects each map to ensure that every road, street, creek and word is crystal-clear and each map is aesthetically pleasing and will look gorgeous when framed, hanging on a home or office wall. Our map app shows you at a mouse-click the current-day location of the mapped area, and our experts make sure all the historical data is accurate in each vintage map. We love the history, the geography, the beauty of each map reproduction … but most of all, we love the fact that we are doing our small part to increase the world’s knowledge of history, cartography, maps, and genealogy. Our business is extremely labor intensive, but we wouldn’t have it any other way; each member of the team shares the passion and devotion to our company and our customers.

Antique Map Library
Maps of the Past started with a map library of nearly 300 original maps, a good portion of them Topo, City, Township, and County maps from locales throughout the state of California. We soon realized that there were thousands more gorgeous antique maps out there. The restored map library now consists of roughly 6,200 historical maps dating back to the sixteenth century; and our archives hold several thousand additional maps awaiting restoration. Our collection includes maps from the US Library of Congress, The David Rumsey Collection, and the US Geological Survey (including USGS topological and quad maps), as well as dozens of additional commercial and academic sources. Maps of the Past owes a special thank you to Mr. David Rumsey for his generosity in allowing us to use several of his map images in our library.

Historic Maps Restored
Nearly all original historic maps are laden with imperfections such as tears, fold lines, stains, holes, pencil markings, and rubber stamp markings, flaws that can detract from the overall appearance of the map. We have invested heavily in the finest equipment, computer software, and graphic artists available to correct each blemished area. Our combined efforts have resulted in elegant, breathtakingly beautiful historical reproductions — while keeping the historical data intact.

Our Printers
We use 44” Epson and 24” wide-format printers. The Epson Stylus Pro 7900 printer is capable of printing at a resolution 2880 x 1440 dpi, create a beautiful, crystal-clear image. We use the Stylus Pro 7900 to print all the photo quality maps. Our other printer is an Epson Stylus Pro 9600, also capable of printing at a resolution of 2880 x 1440 dpi. We use it to print all of our fine art and canvas giclee pieces. (What’s a giclee print? Click here to read more on giclee prints or reproductions.)

The Ink
An improved version of Epson's Archival ColorFast ink has been developed for the latest generation of inkjet professional printers. Epson UltraChrome ink is one of the most important advances made in printing. UltraChrome ink is a pigment-based ink instead of the typical dye-based ink, achieving superb color on a variety of media because of the increase in the density of pigment content in the ink. Its 7-color system creates brilliant color, superior to the traditional 4-color systems. This ensures superbly sharp image reproduction along with light and water resistance for up to 100 years.

Our Media
We use three grades of media (paper) to print your maps, available as these four product options: 

“Glossy Satin Photo Quality” – This is a very high quality, photo-grade, 7 mil thick paper. It is considered a “matte” finish, however is does have a slight sheen to it. It is a very nice paper and produces extremely attractive maps. 

“Photo Quality Laminated” – All maps up to 24” wide may be laminated. The lamination is a hot process using 5 mil laminating material to produce a heavy10 mil thick, very durable plastic covering for your map. 

“Matte Art Paper” – This beautiful, acid-free, lignin-, and chlorine-free, 100% cotton rag fine art archival media has the look and feel of old world handmade paper, yet it produces sharp and accurate reproductions. The Giclee process combined with this paper creates magnificent historical maps guaranteed not to fade, yellow, or crack for more than 100 years. The quality of these maps is recognized by museums and galleries around the world.

“Matte Bright Canvas” — Ideal for framing, the 40% cotton & 60% poly archival grade canvas will satisfy even the most discriminating taste. This canvas has a medium gloss finish and after printing via the giclee process, your historical maps are guaranteed not to fade, yellow, or crack for more than 100 years! The result is truly magnificent.

A Sampling of Our Customers
Johns Hopkins University - Baltimore, Maryland 
Louisiana State University – Baton Rouge, Louisiana 
Connor Prairie Living Museum – Fishers, Indiana 
Arcadia Publishing – Mt. Pleasant, South Carolina 
Virginia Historical Society – Richmond, Virginia 
Historic Arkansas Museum – Little Rock, Arkansas 
Indiana Historical Society – Indianapolis, Indiana 
Historic Hudson Valley – Sleepy Hollow, New York 
Henry Morrison Flagler Museum – Palm Beach, Florida
Kentucky Historical Society – Frankfort, Kentucky 
Los Angeles Public Library – Los Angeles, California 
Northern Lights Art – Lebanon, New Hampshire 
Golden Gate National Park – San Francisco, California 
Compass Rose Trading Company – Kensington, Maryland 
Art Services International – Houston, Texas 
West Kentucky Education Coop. – Murray, Kentucky 
Autry National Center – Los Angeles, California 
Fort Pulaski National Monument – Savannah Beach, Georgia 
Christiansted National Historic Site – St. Croix, Virgin Island 
The Museum of the Confederacy – Richmond, Virginia 
Dave Millington Ancient Coins – London, England 
Parrish Fine Framing & Art – Ann Arbor, Michigan 
Michigan Historical Society – Lansing, Michigan 
California State Railroad Museum – Sacrament, California 
Nasir Framing Company – Alexandria, Virginia 

Click here to find out What Some of Our Customers Are Saying About Us!