Why do we charge for Premium Content?

We often get asked why we charge for some of the features on our site as opposed to allowing free unrestricted access to the collection.

While we wish for as many people to view and use our maps as possible, it would have been impossible to build a collection of this size without recouping our considerable costs to purchase, digitalize, and host the map images.

Perhaps the best analogy of how we view our site's place on the Internet is your local book shop where you can go in, browse the shelves, spend some time thumbing through the books, and make a purchase to read at home. The books themselves are not free, just as some of the features on our site are classed as premium content.

With over $4.5 million dollars invested in the project at this point, the money we take in for Premium content has allowed us to build the world's largest online historic map collection. From the company's conception in 2003, we have endeavored to create the world's foremost destination for researchers interested in North American property maps and antiquarian maps.

Not only have we collected and digitalized our own cadastral atlas collection, but we have created partnerships and in many cases purchased the exclusive licensing rights to give you access to other map collections.

Not only do we offer maps from our own 2,100+ atlas collection, but we have brought under one roof an additional 24,000 atlases from Rockford Map Company, Farm and Home Publishers, Directory Service, Inc., the Title Atlas Company, R.C. Booth, the Osher Map Library, numerous private collections, and thousands of maps compiled from public archives.

For the first time, genealogists, historians, students of urban studies, environmental engineers, and real estate professionals have complete access to the geographic history of America at their fingertips.

Your membership and the charges for our premium features also helps fund upcoming developments.

While we have 1,196,505 images on the site at the present, not long from now that number will be over a million with a large majority of those having cadastral mapping content.

Over course of the next year, we will launch Historic Earth™ allowing members to visually travel through time using the maps in our collection for any geographic point in North America.

Our programs are expensive and we hope you appreciate them enough to purchase usage credits or products.

Access and Membership Details