Cartographic collections
		Map room
		Guide tot the Map room
		Collections
		Special collections
		Abraham Ortelius
		Contents of the collections
		Literature, inventories, catalogues and exhibitions

Classes of works

• General: modern and old, maps and atlases, all regions of the world, broad thematic coverage, various scales.
• Regions with special emphasis: Amsterdam, The Netherlands, Europe, Indonesia, Surinam, United States.

• K.N.A.G. Collection General cartographic items, old and modern
• Vaandrager Collection Surinam
• Van de Waal Collection Amsterdam
• Muller Collection (K.N.A.G.) Mainly atlas maps, 16th-19th centuries
• Former Dutch School Museum School atlases, classroom wall maps

• Maps, over 145 000 sheets:

  Up to 1800, approx. 25 000 sheets

  The collection includes unique and rare printed broadsheet maps, some important manuscript maps on vellum, the Amsterdam Golden Age of cartography, an extensive range of local and regional topographic map series, town plans, river maps, polder maps, and maritime charts.

  1800 to 1945 approx. 40 000 sheets

  Early official topographical series (including all such maps issued in the Netherlands), many foreign examples, early thematic cartography, town plans, maritime chart series from the Netherlands and abroad. Extensive topographical and thematic collections of the former Dutch East Indies and New Guinea; cartography in education.

  1945 to the present approx. 80 000 sheets

  Modern topographic and chorographic series: European countries 1:25 000 - 1:100 000, countries in other continents 1:100 000 - 1:250 000, the world 1:1 000 000 (IMW, WAC, ONC), 1:500 000 (TPC), 1:250 000 (Joint Operations Graphic etc.). Thematic series, Netherlands 1:50 000, countries of Europe 1:250 000, Europe and extra-European countries 1:1 000 000 - 1:5 000 000. A separate regional overview of indexes of multiple-sheet cartographic works is available for these series. Town plans, classroom wall maps, facsimiles and other reproductions of early maps.

• Atlases, approx. 4 500 titles

  Up to 1800 approx. 500 titles

  Ptolemy from 1511, a very extensive range of atlases of the Antwerp period (second half of the 16th century) and the height of Amsterdam map-making (17th to 18th centuries), etc. The collection includes world atlases, maritime atlases, pilot books, town books and other geographical works.

  1800 to 1945 approx. 1 500 titles

  The collection includes early thematic atlases, world atlases, reference atlases and school atlases.

  1945 to the present approx. 2 500 titles

  Thematic atlases, world atlases, national and regional (planning) atlases, school atlases, facsimile atlases, and map-books.

• Others
  • Planetaria 3 (18th c.)
  • Globes 20 (terrestrial, celestial, lunar, thematic, 17th-20th c.)
  • Prints and photos particularly Amsterdam and Indonesia

• Special items
  • Cornelis Anthoniszoon's woodcut map of Amsterdam (first impression, 1544)
  • J.J. Beeldsnijder's map of North-Holland (1575) with the decorative border of 1608
  • Maritime charts by Petrus Plancius, 1592-4
  • Willem Jansz Blaeu's maps of the Seventeen Provinces (1604), Spain (1608), Italy (1606), France (1607) and his early 10 cm terrestrial globe
  • The great wall map of Holland, published by J.A. Colom in 1639 with the subsequent revised editions
  • The atlases by Mercator, Ortelius, Waghenaer, Willem Barentsz, Willem and Joan Blaeu, Janssonius, the Visschers, Valck, De Wit, Ottens, Covens & Mortier, Van Keulen, Colom, Roggeveen, Lootsman, Homann, Sanson, Jaillot, and others, in many variant editions

• A selection of recent modern accessions since c. 1985
  • Tactical pilotage charts (TPCs) 1:500 000 for large parts of the world
  • Topographical map of the United States 1:24/25 000 (c. 25 000 sheets)
  • African countries 1:200 000 and 1:250 000
  • Canada 1:250 000 (approx. 900 sheets)
  • Australia 1:250 000 (not yet complete)
  • Japan 1:200 000 (129 sheets)
  • Latin American countries 1:250 000 (in process of compilation)
  • China 1:250 000 (partial, approx. 200 sheets)
  • Colour-photographs of the preliminary drawings for the first edition of the topographical map of the Netherlands (1850-64), enlarged to 1:25 000 (approx. 200 sheets).
  • Satellite photographs and remote-sensing atlases of the Netherlands and various other countries
  • Modern topographical map series (1:50.000, c. 1985-1995) of the Eastern European states
  • Russia (European part, west of Ural) 1:200.000 (approx. 1400 sheets)
  • Israel (and Lebanon) 1:50.000
  • Various maps, atlases and indexes on CD-Rom

• A selection of early printed items acquired since c. 1985
  • Wall map of the world in 12 sheets, published by F. de Wit (c. 1660)
  • Wall map of the world in 12 sheets, published by G. van Schagen (c. 1700)
  • Wall map of Holland by Van Berckenrode, published by Nic. Visscher (c. 1680)
  • Wall map of Holland by J.A. Colom, published by F. de Wit (1681, 2nd state)
  • Map of Holland, published by Michaele Tramezini (1558)
  • Map of the 17 Provinces by Frans Hogenberg (1578)
  • Navigational chart of Europe in 4 sheets by Lucas Jansz Waghenaer (1589)
  • Navigational chart of Europe in 4 sheets by Willem Jansz Blaeu (c. 1625)
  • Chart-book of the Mediterranean Sea by Willem Barentsz (French edn. 1599)
  • Licht der Zeevaert, vol. 3, by W.J. Blaeu (3rd edn. 1623)
  • Novus Atlas, in 4 volumes, published by J. Janssonius (Spanish edn. 1653)
  • Atlas Russicus by Joseph-Nicolas de L'Isle (1748)
  • Various old maps in relation to Suriname (18th-19th cent.)