My favorite source for blank outline maps

All history teachers love maps.  And we all like to show as many maps as we can to our students.  Especially in U.S. History, maps are critical to understanding.

Right now, I expect my students to be fully familiar with these antebellum slavery-compromise maps:

Clicking here opens a larger map

Clicking here opens a larger map

Clicking here opens a larger map

After presenting the material to my students, I reinforce their learning with an activity where they locate and label the pertinent features on a blank outline map.  My absolute favorite source for blank outline maps is d-maps.com.

There are five things I like best about d-maps.  First, it's free.  Second, it provides maps in six graphic formats (although I use mostly the GIF and PDF formats).  Third, it has world-wide coverage.  Fourth, it has an extensive collection of USA and US state maps.  Finally, it has a generous collection of historical maps (like for Mesopotamia, ancient Rome, and Europe 1914).

I'll often assign map assignments for homework.  Students there are given a link to a base map (like the ones above that have lines and labels already written), and are asked to "locate and label" a series of locations (like the 36° 30" line for the Missouri Compromise map) on their blank outline map.  For map quizzes I give them another blank outline map and an index card with a letter (A or B or C) written on it.  I then tell them which letter is associated with which map, and the students draw and label that single map.  On the back of the map I tell the students to write written descriptions of the other two maps.  (Example: The Kansas-Nebraska Act extended popular sovereignty in the Louisiana Purchase where slavery had previously been banned by the Missouri Compromise.)