Denny Hill Regrade. Moving 7,500,000 cubic feet of earth to build a city.
Special Collections, University of Washington Libraries

ARCHY 403 Archaeology of Landscapes: Research Materials

prepared by
Carla Rickerson, Head Special Collections
Anne Zald, Head Map Collection, zald@u.washington.edu

PAGE GUIDE:

| Remote Sensing Imagery | Historic Maps & Charts | Historic Texts & Imagery | Scholarly Articles | Native American Mapping & Geography |

Remote Sensing Imagery of Washington State

Aerial Photography and Digital Orthophotography

UW Map Collection has aerial photos for Washington State beginning in the 1940s up through 2003. Our 80,000+ photo collection has the most coverage and dates of coverage in the Puget Sound region, although photos of other areas are available. The Aerial Photography and Other Remote-Sensing Imagery Web page is the best place to start when looking for information about our aerial photos. The step-by-step process of locating individual photos of your neighborhood, or area of interest, is explained here. A short-list of projects that cover the Seattle metro area are listed here:
  • Aerial survey of Seattle (1946)
  • 1961 MYLAR enlargements
  • 1965 MYLAR enlargements
  • 1970 enlargments
  • SP-85 enlargements (1985)
  • NW-95 enlargements (1995)
  • NW-C-01 enlargements (2001)

Digital Orthophoto Quads/Quarter-Quads for Washington state are available. Images from USGS/USFS tend to be from the mid-1990s, but 2002 color imagery for portions of the Puget Sound region are available.

Shoreline Aerial Photos oblique-view photos taken 1992-1997 provided online by the Washington State Dept of Ecology.

Puget Sound River History Project
This UW research group "studies the historical landscape of Puget Sound's lowland rivers and estuaries ..." Historic air photos (1930s-1960s) are available for the Nooksack, Skagit-Stillaguamish, Snohomish, Duwamish-Puyallup, Nisqually-Deschutes, Hood Canal, and Juan de Fuca river and estuarine areas.

Satellite Imagery

USGS Seamless Data Distribution
US and international orthoimagery, elevation data, landcover, and space shuttle topography

Landsat 7 imagery for Washington State on CD-ROM
Maps Media G4281.A43 2000 .G4

North American landscape characterization (NALC) project : [Washington state]
Coverage for Western Washington ONLY, on CD-ROM
Maps Media G4281.A43 1990 .E7
"The NALC data set is comprised of hundreds of triplicates (i.e.," Landsat "multispectral scanner (MSS) data acquired in the years 1973, 1986, and 1991 plus or minus one years, thus, the name triplicate). The NALC triplicates also include digital elevation model (DEM) data" and level-1 digital terrain elevation data."

Google Maps offers satellite images (rural areas) and aerial photos (urban areas).
Google Earth enhances these imagery resources with route mapping and 3-D fly throughs. Requires installation of a free plug-in application.

Digital Elevation Models (DEMs), Digital Raster Graphics (DRGs), LIDAR data

Scroll abit to find links to these various file types for Washington state. Files must be downloaded then decompressed before viewing with GIS, Photoshop, or other image display software.

Historic Maps & Charts

Waterman, T.T. (2001). Puget Sound Geography
Edited and with additional material from Vi Hilbert, Jay Miller, and Zalmai Zahir.
Maps Atlases, Special Collections E98.N2 W373 2001
copy of the original manuscript is also available Special Collections PNW F897.P9 W38 1920a

Cadastral Survey Field Notes and Plats for Oregon & Washington
Where:
Maps Media, G4281.B5 1927 W27 (CD-ROMs contain maps only)
Microforms Newspapers Division, Microfiche M-3066 (maps and field notes)
What: A cadaster is a public record, survey, or map of the value, extent, and ownership of land as a basis of taxation. Cadastral surveys began in 1851 for the Washington and Oregon areas. They were done by the General Land Office as part of the Federal Public Land Survey System. The microfiche set contains original plat maps that show legal boundary descriptions, and shows terrain and landmarks, such as trees and cabins. This brochure explains more about the history of the Cadastral Survey.

Early Washington Maps Online
Digital images of maps from WSU, UW, and Tacoma Public Library. Search by keyword, place name, format (bird's eye views, topographic maps, etc.).

Historic Nautical Charts for Washington State, 19th & early-20th centuries
Index and listing of coastal charts with location in the Map Collection. NOAA provides a Historical Map & Chart Collection for the entire U.S.

USGS Topographic Maps for Washington State
The 30 minute maps (1:125,000) are the oldest USGS topographic maps of Washington, generally from the 1890s. Includes notation of roads, buildings, trails, the occasional homestead, as well as natural features of the landscape. 15 minute and 7.5 minute topographic minute topographic maps for Washington are also available. This illustration provides a comparison of coverage area for the various USGS topographic map series.

Puget Sound River History Project
This UW research group "studies the historical landscape of Puget Sound's lowland rivers and estuaries as a dynamically linked geophysical, ecological, and human system. The historical emphasis is on conditions at the time of earliest Euro-American settlement in the mid-19th century, but also includes the landscape's post-glacial, Holocene (10,000 yrs BP) evolution and the last century and a half of change." Download GIS-ready raster (image) data (georeferenced maps and rectified photographs) and a limited amount of vector (line) data (GIS geodatabases).

Kroll Property Maps and Metsker's Atlases
Show land ownership in Seattle, King County, and other WA counties are housed in Special Collections, Allen Library South, Basement.

Sanborn Fire Insurance Maps
(1867-1950) for Washington state cities are available on microfilm in Microforms/Newspapers, Suzzallo Library, ground floor. Large-scale maps (50 feet to the inch) showing building material, height or number of stories, doors, windows, address or lot lines, property use, street width, cisterns, etc.

Panoramic Maps, 1847-1929
Digital images of maps at the Library of Congress - "The panoramic map was a popular cartographic form used to depict U.S. and Canadian cities and towns during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Known also as bird's-eye views, perspective maps, and aero views, panoramic maps are nonphotographic representations of cities portrayed as if viewed from above at an oblique angle. Although not generally drawn to scale, they show street patterns, individual buildings, and major landscape features in perspective."

Historic Texts & Imagery

UW Libraries Digital Collections
Collections are primarily pictorial, although some have accompanying essays and text. Other media are presented, such as newspapers, reports, pamphlets, posters and maps. The emphasis of these collections is on rare and unique materials.

Online Exhibits prepared by Special Collections
Several exhibits available which focus on the history of the UW Campus and the PNW region, including No Finer Site which looks at the early years of the UW campus in downtown Seattle and the move to Union Bay and the Alaska-Yukon-Pacific Exposition - University of Washington campus (1909) which shaped the campus we know today.

Pacific Northwest History
An excellent selection of web sites providing photos, documents, oral histories, and more.

Pacific Northwest Regional Newspaper & Periodical Index
Contains citations from newspapers, periodicals, monographs, scrapbooks, dissertations, pamphlets, and other ephemera dealing with all aspects of life in Seattle, Washington State, and the Pacific Northwest from the 1850s to the present.

Scholarly Articles

To find articles in scholarly journals about landscape archeology or historiography of the PNW search one or more of the following databases:
America: History & Life UW restricted
Covers articles on the history of North America, prehistory to present.
Anthropological Literature UW restricted
Index to articles and essays on anthropology and archaeology, including art history, demography, economics, psychology, and religious studies.
Art Abstracts UW restricted
Covers articles in art history, archaeology, and more published 1984 to present.
Art Index Retrospective UW restricted
Similar to Art Abstracts but covers material published 1929-1984.
Avery Index to Architectural Periodicals UW restricted
Indexes more than 1,000 periodicals published worldwide on archaeology, city planning, interior design, and historic preservation, as well as architecture; covers 1934 to the present.
GeoBase UW restricted
Articles written by geographers which includes cartography among its many areas of interest.
Historical Abstracts UW restricted
Covers articles on the history of the world except for North America, 1450-present.
For assistance with searching these databases, or for suggestions of other resources appropriate to your topic, Ask A Librarian using email, chat, or telephone.

Native American geography and mapping

A few titles to start with are listed below. To find additional books on the mapping and geographic methods/concepts of non-European cultures, search the UW Libraries Catalog and the Summit Catalog using search terms such as:

Subject Heading: Indians of North America - [placename] - maps
Subject Heading: Geographical Perception -
Subject Heading: Dakota Indians - Maps

Items available in Summit libraries can be delivered to the UW library of your choice in 3-5 business days.

A Sto:lo-Coast Salish historical atlas
Special Collection Oversize G1175.F7E1 2001
Puget Sound geography
(original manuscript from T.T. Waterman, edited with additional material from Vi Hebert, Jay Miller, and Zalmai Zahir) : Lushootseed Press, 2001
Special Collections PNW; Maps Atlases E98.N2 W373 2001
HistoryLink.org
The online encyclopedia of Washington State history.
The Aboriginal Mapping Network
A joint initiative of the Gitxsan and Ahousaht First Nations and Ecotrust Canada. The website provides
resources including publications, data, training materials, and funding sources.
Image ca. 1907 from the Photograph Collection, Special Collections, University of Washington Libraries. Order Number: SEA1521.
Page maintained by: Anne Zald zald@u.washington.edu
Last modified: Thursday June 19, 2008