The
Map Collection of the
Texas General Land Office
Searchable
Map Catalog
Favorite Maps of GLO Staff
Ordering Information
Much
of the story of Texas lands is told and reflected through the vast archival
map collection of the Texas General Land Office. Our collection consists
of more than 80,000 manuscript and lithograph (printed) maps, sketches
and documents dating from the early 1800s. Many of these maps and sketches
were drawn by early Texas settlers, trailblazing surveyors and enterprising
German immigrants who were especially skilled in the drafting arts of
the mid- to late- 19th century.
Our collection
includes maps or sketches of Texas (Pre-Republic, Republic and State),
its counties, colonies, some cities, many railroad routes, and much
more. These maps reflect the disposition of public land, one of the
charter responsibilities of the GLO, and are a vast resource for researchers
looking for forts, Indian villages, large ranches, waterways and many
other interesting aspects of Texas history and geography.
The map
collection of the Texas General Land Office represents over 170 years
of creation, accumulation and dedicated stewardship. This stewardship
includes conservation and preservation and a digital scanning program
that has made many of our maps/sketches available for viewing online.
For more
information about specific collections or how to get copies of GLO maps,
we invite you to follow the links below:
County
Maps
Republic of Texas, Colony, and District Maps
State Maps
City Maps
Sketch File Collection
County Maps
Our archival map collection contains thousands of county maps showing
original surveys, usually made by virtue of a land grant, within a particular
county. In many ways these maps represent the foundation of our archival
map holdings as they tie directly into our original land grant documents
that are also housed at the GLO. As land was patented by settlers, meaning
title was issued from the sovereign, more surveys were shown on GLO
maps. Successive versions of these maps reflect those changes. In short,
these maps reveal the development and expansion as settlement progressed
throughout each county.
Beginning in the early 1840s, the majority of the county maps in our
collection were compiled and drawn by draftsmen at the Land Office.
Most are manuscript maps, meaning original hand-drawn works. On many
maps, draftsmen would often draw intricate designs and add whimsically
detailed art, adding character to many maps in this collection.
Several well-known individuals worked as draftsman at the Land Office,
including the famous short story writer and satirist O. Henry (William
Sydney Porter), artist Hermann Lungkwitz, architect Conrad C. Stremme
and Charles W. Pressler.
Republic of Texas, Colony, and District
Maps
Our collection includes several maps of connected surveys in areas settled
by empresarios. These include Stephen F. Austin's well-known early colonies
in central and southeast Texas and the troubled Peters Colony in north
Texas, which culminated in an 1852 settlers' armed attack on the office
of the colony's agent over land ownership problems.
We also have a number of maps in our collection that were created during
a time when Texas was an independent nation from 1836 - 1846. Some of
these maps show Texas with its largest boundaries, with land holdings
reaching into modern-day Wyoming.
District maps include over-sized manuscript maps of the large districts
that feature multiple counties, as we know them today. These include
an 1839 map of portions of the Bexar District around San Antonio, a
map of the Fannin District stretching across north Texas, huge maps
of the Nacogdoches District in east Texas and a map of the Robertson
District in north central Texas.
State Maps
As a State Agency, the GLO possesses numerous historic and modern-era
maps that reflect Texas since becoming a part of the United States in
1846. These maps chart the progress of Texas history from the expansion
of the settled frontier to the development of railroads. We have hundreds
of different State of Texas maps, all reflecting unique information.
City Maps
The GLO houses a number of historical city maps, even some of cities
that do not exist today. For example, an 1839 map of Calhoun, which
was set to be a planned city on Matagorda Island but abandoned by 1845.
Also is a map of Indianola, an important landing point for German immigrants.
We also have lavish maps originally printed to market subdivisions and
developments in cities like Austin and along the Gulf Coast.
Sketch File Collection
Throughout the history of the GLO a number of sketches, correspondence,
reports, letters, and other miscellaneous documents relating to the
mapping and surveying of Texas land have been filed with the agency's
Surveying Division. Of primary interest to professional surveyors, this
collection also contains information important to those researching
the history of a specific area. This collection can now be viewed in
its entirety through the on-line catalog.