Introducing a collection of map resources for Prince Edward Island to supplement the GeoPEI layers and provide guidance on using these primary resources in essays and papers.

This collection includes original sources for maps and charts from the mid-18th century to today’s aerial photos and videos, including the key coastal surveys of the 18th and 19th century by Samuel Holland and Henry Bayfield respectively, along with guidance on using 20th century topographic maps.

Please click on the PEI Map Resources menu or any of the sub-menus for further information.

Featured image: Holland, Samuel and Charles Pettigrew, A Plan of the Island of St. John in the province of Nova Scotia,1765. Library and Archives Canada, merged map courtesy UPEI GeoREACH lab.

Click the image above to try out GeoGULF, a new portal for exploring historical maps of the Gulf of St. Lawrence. The core maps displayed in this early version are the Admiralty Charts produced by Captain Henry W. Bayfield and his staff during the St. Lawrence Survey (1827-1856).

The GeoGULF viewer can be accessed via the Gulf Ecologies project page, or with the full url: https://experience.arcgis.com/experience/0474acf8e73947468593263b68a82c53.

Click the image above to try out the GeoPEI a new portal for exploring maps, atlases, aerial photos, and geospatial data pertaining to the history of Prince Edward Island. The GeoPEI portal takes maps that have been digitized on UPEI Robertson Library’s Island Imagined platform, and it overlays them on modern maps of PEI such as satellite images, street grids, and the latest aerial photos produced by the province. It also provides access to the Province’s aerial photographs going back to 1968 and 1935. In the future, users will also be able to find historical data such as the Island’s buildings, properties, roads, and other built infrastructure..

Users may toggle between seven historical maps and aerial photo layers, as well as the 2020 aerial photos and a number of basemaps in the ArcGIS Online viewer. Search for an address or location using the glass at the top left. Next to it are tools for measuring features and changing the basemap. Note, the default basemap (imagery hybrid) keeps the roads and place name labels above the historical layers. This is often helpful for identifying land use change. If you prefer not to see the labels, change the basemap to the plain imagery option. Happy historical mapping!

The full url to GeoPEI is https://experience.arcgis.com/experience/9870ec990eaa40069f772b7025fbd18c/, or select GeoPEI from the PEI Map Resources menu.