Historical maps (e.g. topographic maps, aerials, recreation maps) – when paired with historical land use statistics – can help identify and assess changes in land use, and connect those to local, regional and global changes in the natural and built environment. Anthropogenic land use – the ways in which humans have used or are using land – has “shaped the landscape of the conterminous United States…dramatically since the start of the 20th century, with agriculture, urban expansion, forestry, and other uses altering the land’s surface across vast swaths of the country.” The changes in landscape caused by anthropogenic land use directly affect environmental processes, and historical land use data is “essential in understanding how anthropogenic land use and land cover change has influenced…environmental and ecological issues, including soil degradation, water quality, habitat loss and fragmentation, biodiversity loss climate change and, most importantly, the global carbon balance.” For example, recreation maps might illustrate how recreation areas such as national parks or forests have expanded or contracted over time, allowing conservationists to draw corollaries between changes in land use and, for example, species endangerment.

Sanborn Fire Insurance Maps of Oregon, 1879-1956
The Sanborn Fire Insurance Maps of Oregon are an extensive collection of detailed maps of 178 towns and cities in Oregon prepared for the primary use of insurance companies. The bulk of the maps were prepared in the 1880s through 1920s. The maps depict both business and residential areas and provide detailed information about the location and type of construction of structures. Most of the maps are at a scale of 1 inch = 50 feet. The collection includes maps of Portland, Astoria, Bend, Corvallis, Eugene, Medford, and Salem as well as numerous smaller towns and villages. All types of structures are represented, including homes, apartments, and boarding houses; churches; schools, courthouses, community halls, parks, playgrounds, and other public facilities; warehouses, factories, mills, dryers, canneries, and creameries; retail stores, banks, and other businesses; and garages, barns, and sheds. The maps provide detailed information about lumber and saw mills and log ponds. Information about streets and railroads as well as the water system and fire department for each municipality are provided on the maps. The Sanborn Maps indicate the type of construction of each structure, whether it is wood, brick, stone, or a combination; the size of the structure and number of floors; and the heating source.

The Library of Congress has made a selection of their Sanborn maps available online.

Metsker's Atlases of Oregon Counties, 1929-1988
The Metsker's Atlases of Oregon Counties consist of 66 atlases and include one or more atlases for all 36 Oregon counties that depict property owners and donation land claims. The bulk of the atlases were published in the 1930s-1950s. Each atlas includes an index map. The number of maps per atlas varies from 20 to 300; however, most of the atlases have fewer than 100 maps. The maps are at a scale of 2 inches = 1 mile. In addition to property boundaries, the maps show roads; railroads; streams, rivers, and water bodies; and schools.

Central and Eastern Oregon Township Plats, 1858-1939
The Central and Eastern Oregon Township Plats consist of reproductions of the original manuscript plat maps for townships in regions of Oregon east of the Cascade Mountains prepared by the U.S. General Land Office and the U.S. Surveyor General; most of the maps were prepared in the 1870-1890s. Each township of 36 square miles is on a separate sheet. Most sheets have a scale of about 1:31,680 or 2 inches = 1 mile; the remainder are at a smaller scale of about 1.5 inches = 1 mile. These plats cover from Townships 4N to 41S and Ranges 6E to 37 E. Regions depicted in this collection include the Umatilla River basin, Blue Mountains, John Day River basin and tributaries, Snake River, Deschutes River, and Klamath Basin. Boundaries of the Umatilla, Malheur, and Klamath Indian Reservations are shown on the plats. Plats for the Vale and Owyhee Irrigation Projects prepared in the 1930s are included. Several of the plats show mining ditches and placer mining claims in the John Day River basin. The Klamath River, Klamath Lakes and associated marshes, Tule Marsh, and Modoc Lake as well as Fort Klamath and the Klamath Irrigation Project are depicted. The plats show section lines as well as natural features and vegetation such as prairie; timber, soil types; rivers, streams, sloughs, and wetlands; and fields. The maps include some topographic features. Most of the plats include a narrative description indicating if the township is appropriate for grazing or cultivation, the soil quality, availability of water, and type of timber. Wagon trails and military roads are shown on the plats as well as land claims. This collection consists primarily of single copies of each township plat; however, there are some townships represented by multiple copies of the same plat or different editions of the same township. These survey plats, as well as field note records for these townships, are available online through the Land Status and Cadastral Survey Records website prepared by the Bureau of Land Management's Oregon State Office.

Aerial Photographs of Benton, Lincoln, Linn, Marion and Polk Counties, 1936-1979
This collection is comprised of aerial photographs taken by or under contract with the United States Department of Agriculture from 1936 to 1979 and includes images of 5 counties in western Oregon: Benton, Lincoln, Linn, Marion, and Polk. This collection includes multiple sets of photographs (arranged chronologically by year) for each county. Each set is comprised of two components: photo mosaics (Series 1) and photo tiles (Series 2-6). The mosaics, which serve as indices for the photo tiles, are representations of each county (typically one quadrant of the county per sheet) made by arranging reproductions of the photo tiles in geographic order. The mosaics include serial numbers for each tile and are annotated to indicate which tiles are held in the collection. The photo tiles are largescale photographs of quadrangles within each county. Because the photo tile sets are incomplete, each mosaic includes annotations indicating which photo tiles are present in the collection. Many of the collection's mosaics and photographic tiles include manuscript annotations, markings highlighting geographic features, and alternative numbering schema. This collection is being digitized, and is available online in Oregon Digital.