Original World War I Maps Available from Ball State University Libraries

Historic World War I Maps Available Online from Ball State University Libraries

The Ball State University Libraries’ Digital Media Repository (DMR) provides online access to a broad range of digitized primary source materials, including artwork, architectural drawings, films and video, oral histories, photographs, publications, and cartographic resources.  The GIS Research and Map Collection (GRMC) has provided more maps for a new collection available from the DMR—the New York Times War Maps Collection.

The New York Times War Maps are a set of five maps published periodically in the Sunday edition of the newspaper in early 1918.  Each map is newspaper-sized and connects to create a large map of the Western front in France, the Netherlands, Germany, and Belgium during World War I.  The maps cover an area just west of Calais, France, along the coast of the North Sea south to Orleans eastward to Freiburg, Germany, and crossing back northward to near Cologne, Germany.

The maps identify the locations of railways, principal highways, canals, aircraft depots, forts and fortified towns, and naval arsenals.  The battle line as of December 31, 1917, and the furthest advance of the German Army are shown with solid and dashed lines.

For more information about the Digital Media Repository, please contact the Archives and Special Collections at 765-285-5078.  For more information about these or other historic maps, please contact the GRMC at 765-285-1097.