Aggregated Database on the History of Cartography (ADHOC)

The Aggregated Database on the History of Cartography (ADHOC) is a large, composite corpus for the study of historical maps. Specifically, it is composed of two distinct datasets: ADHOC Records and ADHOC Images. ADHOC Records comprises 771,561 map records compiled from the digital catalogs of 38 digital libraries in 11 countries. ADHOC Images, by contrast, contains 83,481 map records and includes 99,715 direct download links to digitized map images hosted in digital libraries.

Both datasets are part of R. Petitpierre's PhD thesis: Studying Maps at Scale: A Digital Investigation of Cartography and the Evolution of Figuration [1]. Extensive details on collection and data statistics are provided in the context of that work.

Organization of the data

ADHOC Records dataset contains the following fields. The hash symbol (#) indicates that the field is also present in ADHOC Images dataset. 

Original, aggregated metadata

institution (#) — Source library or holding institution.institution_country (#) — Country of the holding institution (ISO3).title — Main title of the map/atlas.title_complement — Subtitle or complementary title information.author/contributor (#) — Map authors, editors, or contributors.publication(general) — Free-text imprint statement (publisher, place, year).publication_publisher (#) — Separate publisher name(s), when the information is structured.publication_date — Published year(s) or date range.publication_place (#) — Place(s) of publication.coverage_location (#) — Named geographic area(s) covered by the map.cartographic_data (#) — Extent or scale strings from catalog records.notes/additional — Supplementary notes or catalog remarks.physical_object (#) — Physical description (dimensions, format, extent).subject/topic — Thematic subjects or keywords.type — Resource type (when detailed).language — Language(s) of the document.images_url (#) — URL(s) to digitized images (often IIIF manifests).digitization_data — Technical details of digitization process.rights/usage — Rights statements or usage permissions.identifier — Persistent library identifiers (e.g., DOI, ARK, call numbers).

Derived values

DATE (#) — Original year or date range (normalized).DATE_m (#) — Derived single representative year (e.g., midpoint).SCALE (#) — Parsed numeric map scale denominator(s).LOC_publication (#) — Human-readable publication place string.LOC_publication_details (#) — Geocoded details of publication place.LOC_publication_country (#) — Country of publication (ISO3 normalized).LOC_coverage (#) — Human-readable coverage area string.LOC_coverage_details (#) — Geocoded details of coverage area(s).LOC_coverage_country (#) — Country covered (ISO3 normalized).COMMUNITIES_id (ADHOC Images) — ID of the contributor community (based on collaborations).

Multi-valued catalog fields are stored as lists (e.g., multiple publishers or image URLs; several coverage places).

Note on data structure for ADHOC Records

Within ADHOC Records, the aggregated metadata are generally structured hierarchically, as nested objects retaining the original column name(s). Here are real examples from the physical_object column:

{'height': 3218.0,
'width': 4907.0,
'extent': '1 Ansicht : Kupferdruck ; 26 x 32 cm'},

...

{'umfang': '1 Ansicht : Kupferstich ; 15 x 26 cm'}

Note on geocoded location details

The geocoded location details fields such as LOC_publication details and LOC_coverage details are listing geocoding results under the gv3 (GoogleV3) and nom (Nominatim) keys respectively:

{'gv3': [{'address_components': [{'long_name': 'Amsterdam',
'short_name': 'Amsterdam',
'types': ['locality', 'political']},
{'long_name': 'Government of Amsterdam',
'short_name': 'Government of Amsterdam',
'types': ['administrative_area_level_2', 'political']},
{'long_name': 'North Holland',
'short_name': 'NH',
'types': ['administrative_area_level_1', 'political']},
{'long_name': 'Netherlands',
'short_name': 'NL',
'types': ['country', 'political']}],
'formatted_address': 'Amsterdam, Netherlands',
'geometry': {'bounds': {'northeast': {'lat': 52.4311573, 'lng': 5.0791619},
'southwest': {'lat': 52.278174, 'lng': 4.7287589}},
'location': {'lat': 52.3675734, 'lng': 4.9041388999999995},
'location_type': 'APPROXIMATE',
'viewport': {'northeast': {'lat': 52.4311573, 'lng': 5.0791619},
'southwest': {'lat': 52.278174, 'lng': 4.7287589}}},
'partial_match': True,
'place_id': 'ChIJVXealLU_xkcRja_At0z9AGY',
'types': ['locality', 'political']}, ...],
'nom': [{'place_id': 144007315,
'licence': 'Data © OpenStreetMap contributors, ODbL 1.0. http://osm.org/copyright',
'osm_type': 'way',
'osm_id': 94756489,
'lat': '52.37311615',
'lon': '4.892351098497149',
'class': 'tourism',
'type': 'attraction',
'place_rank': 30,
'importance': 0.4677451708,
'addresstype': 'tourism',
'name': 'Dam',
'display_name': 'Dam, Rokin, Centrum, Amsterdam, Noord-Holland, Nederland, 1012 KT, Nederland',
'boundingbox': ['52.3724013', '52.3738438', '4.8907250', '4.8944937']}, ... ]}

Descriptive statistics

Number of map records: 771,561 + 83,481Number of map images: 99,715Collection countries covered: 11Study period: 1492–1948

Use and Citation

For any mention of this dataset, please cite :

@misc{adhoc_petitpierre_2025,  author = {Petitpierre, R{\'{e}}mi},  title = {{Aggregated Database on the History of Cartography (ADHOC)}},  year = {2025},  publisher = {EPFL},  url = {https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.16277852}}@phdthesis{studying_maps_petitpierre_2025,  author = {Petitpierre, R{\'{e}}mi},  title = {{Studying Maps at Scale: A Digital Investigation of Cartography and the Evolution of Figuration}},  year = {2025},  school = {EPFL},  doi = {10.5075/epfl-thesis-11559}}

Corresponding author

Rémi PETITPIERRE - [e-mail] - ORCID - Github -  Scholar - ResearchGate 

Work ethics

The data were compiled by RP.

Version notes

1.0 Stable release

1.1 Added title and notes/additional fields to ADHOC Images

License

See license file for detailed license information, depending on digital library policies. The derived data are released under the license CC-BY 4.0.

Liability

We do not assume any liability for the use of this dataset. Links to download digital images are provided as is. Images should be used under the prescriptions edicted by the license owner.

References

Petitpierre R (2025) Studying Maps at Scale: A Digital Investigation of Cartography and the Evolution of Figuration. PhD thesis. École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne.