Maps & Cartographic Information: Road Maps

The Map Collection collects state highway maps for the entire United States and road and street maps for major cities in the U.S. and the world, with more in-depth coverage for Washington state.

The best way to find a recent road map for your geographic area of choice is to find a call number range by looking at our LC Map Call Numbers Finding Aid, then go to the General Map Cases and browse within that range (for more help on LC Map Call Numbers, try our How to Use and Understand Maps page). Maps cataloged as road maps have a ".P2" in the call number; however, some road maps are cataloged as general maps, so be sure to look at both general maps and maps by subject.

1. Use a KEYWORDS search.
2. Because many road maps are considered general maps, they may not have the word "road" in the title or subject headings. In the text box, start by typing in your geographic area and refining your results by the material type "maps".
3. If this results in too many maps, narrow the search by adding more specific key words. In the text box, type in your geographic area and "maps" or "atlases" and "road* or street*". The asterisk * tells the catalog to search for any word beginning with those letters.

Road maps contain detailed information about roads, streets, and highways for a geographic area. Familiar names in road map publishing include AAA, Rand McNally, and Thomas Bros.