The National Library holds mapping not only for Australia, but for every country and ocean in the world and also for all the planets. 

About 5,000 books, pamphlets and periodicals, over 11,000 paintings, drawings and prints, around 800 maps and over 300 manuscripts mostly published 1770–1900. Largely relating to Australia, New Zealand and the Pacific including Antarctica.

614 books and pamphlets, mostly published overseas in the period 1850–1950, including children’s books, novels, atlases, scripture readings, prayer books, hymn books, works on theology, school textbooks and some historical works.

View historical maps overlaid on a modern map.

722 books, pamphlets, leaflets, manuscripts, newspapers and maps, mostly written in Chinese. Mainly Christian works, plus works on the Chinese language, reprints of classical writings and works relating to the Taiping Rebellion of 1850-64.

A large number of photographs and negatives taken by Loke Wan Tho on his ornithological expeditions to the Pacific, Asia and Europe in the 1950s and early 1960s, as well as papers, books and maps.

Over 13,000 negatives, transparencies, and photographs of cattle stations taken between 1951 and 1961, as well as 52 British Hydrographic Office charts and maps of Australia and the Pacific and personal papers of Johnston.

Our James Cook collection showcases the Library’s most famous item - Cook’s HMS Endeavour journal.

Books, pamphlets, photographs, posters and a small number of maps relating to war and aviation.

91 charts of Australia and the Pacific produced by the British Admiralty and Hydrographic Service.

Papers, maps, plans, photographs, paintings and other material related to early Canberra and the work of architects Walter Burley Griffin and Marion Mahony Griffin.

Papers and microfilm of original records relating to the German colonies in the Pacific from 1884-1914, and a selection of other books on this topic.