The University of Iowa Libraries

County atlases from the 1870s to the 1930s are available for all Iowa counties on microfilm.  Most were filmed using copies from the collections at the State Historical Society offices in Iowa City (SHSI) and Des Moines (DM). The microfilmed county atlases may be obtained in the Map Collection, then taken to the Media Services Department for viewing and copying.

Click here to search a listing of county atlases on film.
This is a searchable database of holdings only—no images are included in the database.

In addition, the UI Map Collection staff have begun to digitize maps from selected county atlases (see Iowa Historical Atlases Digital Collection, http://digital.lib.uiowa.edu/atlases/index.php) as part of an ongoing reformatting effort of UI’s Iowa Digital Library staff and Iowa Heritage Digital Collections (IHDC) project. A few Iowa atlases have been digitized as part of the Library of Congress American Memory Project.

All digital mapping projects (e.g., GLO, Hixson, etc.) can be searched at one time at Iowa Maps Digital Collection, http://digital.lib.uiowa.edu/maps

The Map Collection also contains a microfiche set from the Library of Congress’ (LC) Geography and Maps Division, titled “LC G&M Division Land Ownership Maps. Iowa” cataloged as Micro fiche 2059. Fiche set #2059 may be viewed in the Map Collection and taken to Access Services for copying.

Counties and years represented in that microfiche set are as follows:

In addition to older county atlases and land ownership records in film, fiche, and digital format, the UI Map Collection also owns newer plat books, from the 1950s and 1960s on, for all counties in Iowa.  Holdings for most plat books are in the online catalog.

rev. February 17, 2011 MM:lrc