Roy Military Survey map of Scotland (1747-1755): mosaicing, geo-referencing, and web delivery

This paper describes and explains a project to make available a seamed, georeferenced version of the Roy Military Survey map of Scotland (1747-1755). The Roy map is arguably the most important map of Scotland in the 18th century, and the background to and history of the map is important to understand its value today and the priorities in making it available online. This collaborative project by the British Library and the National Library of Scotland involved seaming together 1,100 images of individual dissections of the map, and then geo-referencing these mosaics. It is suggested that for this map, geo-referencing should be subordinate to presenting the original cartographic artefact close to its original form, and considering the historical and cultural context for the item. ESRI's ArcIMS software was used as part of a customised interface to deliver the map online. The various choices made, the problems encountered, and solutions adopted are explained, along with an assessment of future planned developments.