Manuscript map holdings include portolan charts and atlases of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, a collection of over 100 maps of French possessions around the world (ca. 1675 - ca. 1725), 125 eighteenth-century European battle maps, and several thousand tracings of maps relating to the history of the French marine. In addition, there are hundreds of photostat copies of manuscript maps of the world and the Americas in European archives, containing much of what is needed to study the expansion of European power in the new world. Facsimiles and microform copies of old maps are acquired regularly and an attempt is made to comprehensively collect historical atlases for our areas of greatest strength.
The Newberry holds the collections of two of the top three U.S. map publishers in the twentieth century. The Rand McNally Collection, donated by the largest commercial map publisher in the U.S., contains many books, atlases, maps, and guidebooks published by the company from the 1870s to the present. The General Drafting Company Archives includes 25,000 road maps, original artwork, atlases, and travel guides spanning the company's history between 1909-1991.