At the end of World War II, hundreds of U.S. Army units in the European Theater of Operations produced souvenir maps for soldiers and officers to take home. Units of all sizes produced maps, ranging from Army Corps to companies. These maps tell the story of the war through the eyes of the men who served. They are some of the first written testimonies about the experience of war in Europe.

Cushing Library and Archives at Texas A&M University holds a large collection of these remarkable artifacts. Here, you will find more than a hundred maps, carefully annotated and made available for researchers. This is a rich corpus of data about American service in wartime Europe. There are thousands of images, place names, and people searchable across the map collection. You can search by events, or by curated themes that appear throughout the collections.

Some of these maps are colorful, while others contain lots of factual detail. In some cases, we know a great deal about the artists who prepared the maps, while others are lost to history. Some maps include humorous details, inside jokes, and moments of joy. Others tell stories of sorrow and loss and the violence of war.

These maps are some of the first records of American encounters with Nazi crimes, including concentration camps, forces labor facilities, and POW camps. They reflect soldiers’ preoccupations with meeting women and enjoying wine and beer. There are also faithful renderings of some of Europe’s great artistic and architectural landmarks, as well as depictions of ruined cities and the devastation of war.

We invite you to explore this collection for yourself. Our team is continuing to add to the corpus of maps and to provide new data to the collection.

Contact email: mappingvictory@tamu.edu

Principle Investigator:

Dr. Adam R. Seipp

Site Designer:

Kayley Hart

Technical Editor and Site Developer:

Dr. Bryan Tarpley

Digital Collections Manager:

Mark Baggett

Special Collections Manager:

Anton Duplessis

Student Researchers:

Ilian Arellano
Jaden Chin
Bella Frano
James Franco
Travis Griffing
Samuel Hunt
Brent Johnson
Brooke Kingston
Campbell Morrow
Annie Ngo
Joshua Ward
Nicholas Zhou