Archives Makes Historic Maps Available Online

Nova Scotians will now be able to explore their province's past through a historic maps collection being made available online by the Nova Scotia Archives.

Maps of Nova Scotia is a journey down three centuries of roads and ragged shorelines, offering glimpses of Port Royal and Halifax when they were new settlements.

"Historic maps are immensely valuable as they show the growth of our province," said Communities, Culture and Heritage minister David Wilson. "Students, researchers, and life-long learners will no doubt make excellent use of this new resource from the Nova Scotia Archives."

The online exhibit features 55 historic maps dating back to 1613 and are searchable by keyword and date. Communities from Yarmouth to Sydney are featured in city atlases, fire insurance plans, engravings and maps of the province.

Woolford's Surveys, a special feature within the new resource, allows web visitors to explore Nova Scotia's two earliest highways. A series of 17 beautifully detailed watercolour strip maps shows the two roads from Halifax to Windsor and Halifax to Truro as they appeared about 1817.

Each map captures the topographical features along that section of the route, notes the mileage from Halifax, and identifies, by name, the sequence of inns, houses, properties and other notable buildings encountered along the way.

Maps of Nova Scotia and Woolford's Surveys can be found online at www.gov.ns.ca/nsarm/virtual/maps .

Nova Scotia Archives acquires, preserves and makes available the province's documentary heritage.