Geography & Maps

‘There is so far as travel and study can tell, no other area in the world quite so wonderful as the Southwestern portion of the United States; and probably none so little wondered at....’<

This website illustrates and describes a selection of original rare and historic maps chosen from the Map Collection of the University of Arizona Library. They portray a region of New Spain once called Pimería and chronicle four centuries of mapping from the earliest map of the region in the collection, a 1556 view of North and South America, up to the Gadsden Purchase of 1854 when Pimería Alta--or southern Arizona--was acquired by the United States from Mexico.