Iowa county atlases may be found in several locations, both in the physical Map Collection and online.
Online
A selection of Iowa atlases is now available online in the Iowa Historical Atlases Digital Collection, a part of the Iowa Digital Library. The Digital Collection is an ongoing digitization effort of UI’s Iowa Digital Library staff and the Iowa Heritage Digital Collections (IHDC) project. An additional search interface featuring a map style index is available here.
A few Iowa atlases have also been digitized as part of the Library of Congress American Memory Project.
Microfilm
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.
Atlases on microfilm can be searched in this database. Please note that this is a searchable database of holdings only—no images are included in the database.
Microfiche
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:
| Allamakee…..1872 | Blackhawk….1887 | Buchanan…….1900 |
| Buena Vista…[1891?] | Butler………….1897 | Cedar…………[1863-65?] |
| Clay……………1896 | Clinton………..1865 | Crawford……..1883, 1898 |
| Delaware…….1869 | Dickinson……1883 | Dubuque……..1900 |
| Jackson………1867 | Jasper………..1871 | Jefferson..…..1871 |
| Keokuk………..1861 | Linn…………….1859, 1869 | Louisa…………1858 |
| Mahaska……..1871, 1884, 1895 | Polk…………….1872, 1885, 1895 | Scott……………1860 |
| Story……………1883 | Wapello……….1870, 1873 | Warren………..[1859?] |
| Woodbury……1884 | Worth…………..[1894] | Wright…………..1885 |
Physical Collection
Most Iowa atlases available in the collection may be found online in InfoHawk.
In addition to older county atlases and land ownership records available in film, fiche, digital, and physical 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 InfoHawk.
If you are unable to find what you are looking for, please contact Map Collection staff by phone, email, or in person for additional assistance.
Updated: Jan. 6, 2014 by M. Gamm