It is mildly embarrassing to come across a great resource that is hosted within one’s own institution by accident (read: google). Unwittingly googling one’s own publications is definitively worse, but that is not the point. Nonetheless, I was happy to stumble upon the Institute of European History’s digital map server when I needed to illustrate my point about territorial cleavages in Germany. The site has a slightly dusty look and uses gifs for previews, but the licence is more than generous and the coverage and quality are impressive. If you ever need a map of Hessen-Kassel’s administrative structures in 1821, look no further. The only thing that is missing (as far as I can tell) are shapefiles, but if you are serious about GIS applications, you can convert/georeference the postscript files. For lecture slides, the gifs should suffice anyway.
@kaiarzheimer Here is the alt-text description for the image:
A detailed political map of Hesse, Nassau, and Waldeck in 1814. The map shows various territories and their administrative divisions. The territories are colored in different shades of green, orange, yellow, and brown to indicate their allegiance to different governing entities, such as Prussian administration, Austrian administration, and various duchies. The map includes place names like Kassel, Frankfurt, Wiesbaden, and Darmstadt, as well as the names of smaller towns and villages. Rivers, including the Rhine and Main, are marked in blue. The map also contains a legend explaining the symbols used for the seats of government and other important places. A scale bar indicates the distance of 40 kilometers. Text labels and annotations are present throughout the map, providing additional information about the political landscape of the time.
Provided by @altbot, generated using Gemini
@kaiarzheimer Winterbach ? d.i. Winterberg 😅