Holland Land Company Map Collection
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The Holland Land Company Map Collection, a series of 625 color maps from the Archives of the Holand Land Company, 1789-1869, consists of a color microform master- and color microfiche use-copy created as part of the larger Holland Land Company Project conducted by SUNY Fredonia between 1981 and 1991. The maps are included in the 202 reel microfilm of the Archives of the Holland Land Company. Due to their nature and the color format, the Project decided that they would also be worthy of reproducing to microform in their original color. "Markers" were place within the microfilm collection to indicate those maps which were also reproduced as color microforms. The original items are help by the Municipal Archives of Amsterdam. While encompassing various portions of the Holland Land Company's holdings in the United States, it is particularly strong in images of land holdings in western New York and northwestern Pennsylvania, and includes such interesting pieces as color street maps of the cities of New York and Philadelphia, maps of both the proposed and final locations of the Erie Canal, and images of Native American reservations and holdings of the period.
This collection is regionally significant and invaluable to western New York as both a local history resource and a genealogical reference. Not only do the maps document the sale and distribution of land among early settlers, but they also illustrate relations between the Company, settlers, and the Native American population. This collection's broader significance includes the documenting of the history of business and industry, colonial area history, Native American history, and natural history.
Until now, these materials existed in the United States in two formats-the color microfiche use copy, and the black and white microfilm-both of which were only available through onsite use in the Archives and Special Collections of Daniel A. Reed Library at SUNY Fredonia. Another challenge faced by potential users was simply the format. Although the maps had been filmed individually on color microfiche, it was impossible to view the entirety of the map at once due to the limitations of the microforms readers. However, now that this collection has been digitized these challenges, as well as many others, have been eliminated.
The digitization process consisted of first scanning each individual map at 1800 dpi in 48-bit color, creating a TIFF file. After the scan of the microform was completed, the image was loaded into Photoshop for alignment and cropping of blank space to create a quality, usable image. Next, information concerning the content of the map, or metadata, was collected. This particular information, regarding subjects as well as complete titles for example, was previously unavailable for individual maps. This particular step proved to be the most challenging as well as time consuming of the digitization process. Once the best quality image had been created and the metadata had been collected, it was then uploaded to the Western New York Legacy site using ContentDM.
Morris Purchase, Population Co., and 2 Million Acre Tract; 1800
Now that the images as well as the metadata have been successfully incorporated into the Western New York Legacy site, the collection is more readily accessible than ever before. Although digitization has made the collection more accessible in general, use of the collection can still be somewhat challenging. Please note that although subject fields have been provided for the most part, they do not dictate everything which appears on the map. It would be in your best interest to search the collection using broad terms as well as alternative spellings of different names, both of individuals as well as locations. This is simply due to the fact that at the time the maps were created there was no standardization of spelling.
The Holland Land Company Maps Digitization Project was funded by a 2007 Regional Bibliographic Databases and Interlibrary Resources Sharing Program Grant through the Western New York Library Resources Council