Texas General Land Office

Holdings

The Archives of the Texas General Land Office consists of approximately 35.5 million land grant records dating back to 1720 and approximately 80,000 maps, sketches and plat maps of Texas, dating back to 1753.

Digital Collections

To date, the GLO has posted more than 2 million documents and 80,000 maps, sketches and drawings on their own website, only a small portion of which are represented here. Map reproductions are available for purchase from the GLO website: https://historictexasmaps.com/.

Portal Collections

GLO has contributed three collections to the Portal:

Historic County Maps - 926 maps, c. 1838-1939.

The historic county maps are cadastral (land ownership) maps, showing original surveys, usually made by virtue of a land grant, within a particular county in Texas. In many ways these maps represent the foundation of the GLO archival map holdings, as they tie directly into the original land grant documents that are also housed at the GLO. As land was patented by settlers, meaning title was issued from the sovereign government, more surveys were shown on GLO maps. Successive versions of these maps reflect those changes. In short, these maps show the development and expansion as settlement progressed throughout each county in Texas.

Formats represented include manuscripts, lithographs, some early photographs, and blueprints/bluelines. The scale is generally 1 inch to 4000 varas. Most of the maps were compiled and drawn by draftsmen at the GLO. Most are manuscript maps, meaning original hand-drawn works. On many maps, draftsmen drew intricate designs and added whimsically detailed art, adding character to many maps in this collection. Some of the earliest maps were created by District or County Surveyors in Texas, before the GLO began to employ its own draftsmen for this purpose, due to the generally poor quality of maps sent to the GLO by County and District Surveyors. A few maps are lithographs that were privately issued by railroad companies and title companies.

Several well-known individuals worked as draftsman at the GLO and their work is represented here, including the famous short story writer and satirist O. Henry (William Sydney Porter), Texas artist Hermann Lungkwitz, Old Land Office Building architect Conrad C. Stremme and well-known Texas cartographer Charles W. Pressler.

Lorenzo de Zavala Online - 13 items.

The Texas General Land Office contributes select items for the Lorenzo de Zavala Online: Empresario, Statesman and Texas Revolutionary collection. See the Expediente of de Zavala's 1829 colonization contract, as well as correspondence to or from Jose Angel Navarro, Jose Domingo Ugartechea, Jose Maria Falcon, Martin Perfecto de Cos, Stephen F. Austin, Manuel de Mier y Teran, and Ramon Musquiz.

O. Henry Collection - 11 items.

As part of a collaborative project entitled, "William Sydney Porter in Austin: From Surprising Beginnings to the O. Henry Ending," the Texas General Land Office contributes its collection of Ohenryana to the O. Henry Collection. See the Maps of Kent County and Webb county for examples of O. Henry's work at the General Land Office; the Receivera's Memorandum and Roster of Employees for administrative evidence of his work there; newspaper articles and "My Recollections of O. Henry" by later employer and Texas land agent Frank Maddox for interpretations of O.Henry's life in Austin; and Bexar Scrip 2692 and Patent 87, Volume 40-A for inspiration for the short story "Bexar Scrip 2692."

Contact

Mark Lambert

(512) 463-5260

mark.lambert@glo.texas.gov

Address

Texas General Land Office
1700 North. Congress Avenue.
Suite 130
Austin, Texas 78701-1495

URL

https://historictexasmaps.com/


At a Glance



Cite This Partner

Here is our suggested citation. Consult an appropriate style guide for conformance to specific guidelines.

Texas General Land Office, partner contributing to The Portal to Texas History. University of North Texas Libraries. https://texashistory.unt.edu/explore/partners/GLO/ accessed September 24, 2023.


Explore Holdings

Start browsing this partner's items in one of the following ways:

Counties (expand list)

Travis County, TX
16
Bexar County, TX
12
Nacogdoches County, TX
11
Webb County, TX
11
Goliad County, TX
10
Erath County, TX
9
Colorado County, TX
8
Dallas County, TX
8
Jack County, TX
8
Jasper County, TX
8
Jefferson County, TX
8
Cass County, TX
7
Coleman County, TX
7
Cottle County, TX
7
Fannin County, TX
7
Hopkins County, TX
7
Kinney County, TX
7
Matagorda County, TX
7
Montgomery County, TX
7
Parker County, TX
7
Polk County, TX
7
Tarrant County, TX
7
Austin County, TX
6
Bastrop County, TX
6
Blanco County, TX
6
Brazoria County, TX
6
DeWitt County, TX
6
Ellis County, TX
6
Floyd County, TX
6
Hamilton County, TX
6
Harris County, TX
6
Hunt County, TX
6
Karnes County, TX
6
Kerr County, TX
6
Kimble County, TX
6
La Salle County, TX
6
Lamar County, TX
6
Leon County, TX
6
Liberty County, TX
6
Maverick County, TX
6
McLennan County, TX
6
Palo Pinto County, TX
6
Potter County, TX
6
Red River County, TX
6
Refugio County, TX
6
Runnels County, TX
6
San Augustine County, TX
6
Starr County, TX
6
Tom Green County, TX
6
Uvalde County, TX
6
Van Zandt County, TX
6
Victoria County, TX
6
Washington County, TX
6
Wilson County, TX
6
Zavala County, TX
6
Archer County, TX
5
Bowie County, TX
5
Brown County, TX
5
Burleson County, TX
5
Caldwell County, TX
5
Callahan County, TX
5
Childress County, TX
5
Concho County, TX
5
Coryell County, TX
5
Dickens County, TX
5
Dimmit County, TX
5
Fort Bend County, TX
5
Frio County, TX
5
Guadalupe County, TX
5
Hale County, TX
5
Hardin County, TX
5
Haskell County, TX
5
Hill County, TX
5
Houston County, TX
5
Jackson County, TX
5
Johnson County, TX
5
Jones County, TX
5
Mason County, TX
5
McCulloch County, TX
5
Nueces County, TX
5
Orange County, TX
5
Panola County, TX
5
Pecos County, TX
5
Shelby County, TX
5
Smith County, TX
5
Taylor County, TX
5
Wharton County, TX
5
Williamson County, TX
5
Wise County, TX
5
Anderson County, TX
4
Armstrong County, TX
4
Baylor County, TX
4
Bee County, TX
4
Bosque County, TX
4
Brazos County, TX
4
Briscoe County, TX
4
Calhoun County, TX
4
Chambers County, TX
4
Cherokee County, TX
4
Clay County, TX
4
Collin County, TX
4
Comal County, TX
4
Denton County, TX
4
Eastland County, TX
4
Edwards County, TX
4
Falls County, TX
4
Fayette County, TX
4
Freestone County, TX
4
Galveston County, TX
4
Garza County, TX
4
Gillespie County, TX
4
Gonzales County, TX
4
Hall County, TX
4
Harrison County, TX
4
Hartley County, TX
4
Hemphill County, TX
4
Henderson County, TX
4
Kaufman County, TX
4
Knox County, TX
4
Lampasas County, TX
4
Lavaca County, TX
4
Madison County, TX
4
Medina County, TX
4
Menard County, TX
4
Montague County, TX
4
Moore County, TX
4
Rains County, TX
4
Rusk County, TX
4
Sabine County, TX
4
Stonewall County, TX
4
Titus County, TX
4
Trinity County, TX
4
Upshur County, TX
4
Wichita County, TX
4
Wood County, TX
4
Atascosa County, TX
3
Bailey County, TX
3
Bell County, TX
3
Burnet County, TX
3
Carson County, TX
3
Castro County, TX
3
Comanche County, TX
3
Cooke County, TX
3
Deaf Smith County, TX
3
Delta County, TX
3
Duval County, TX
3
Grayson County, TX
3
Gregg County, TX
3
Grimes County, TX
3
Hansford County, TX
3
Hays County, TX
3
Hood County, TX
3
Kent County, TX
3
Lamb County, TX
3
Limestone County, TX
3
Llano County, TX
3
Lubbock County, TX
3
Marion County, TX
3
Milam County, TX
3
Motley County, TX
3
Navarro County, TX
3
Newton County, TX
3
Nolan County, TX
3
Oldham County, TX
3
Roberts County, TX
3
San Patricio County, TX
3
Scurry County, TX
3
Shackelford County, TX
3
Stephens County, TX
3
Sterling County, TX
3
Swisher County, TX
3
Throckmorton County, TX
3
Tyler County, TX
3
Zapata County, TX
3
Andrews County, TX
2
Angelina County, TX
2
Aransas County, TX
2
Bandera County, TX
2
Borden County, TX
2
Brewster County, TX
2
Cochran County, TX
2
Crane County, TX
2
Crosby County, TX
2
Dallam County, TX
2
Dawson County, TX
2
Donley County, TX
2
Ector County, TX
2
Franklin County, TX
2
Gray County, TX
2
Hidalgo County, TX
2
Hockley County, TX
2
Hutchinson County, TX
2
Irion County, TX
2
Kendall County, TX
2
Lipscomb County, TX
2
Live Oak County, TX
2
McMullen County, TX
2
Midland County, TX
2
Morris County, TX
2
Ochiltree County, TX
2
Parmer County, TX
2
Presidio County, TX
2
Randall County, TX
2
San Saba County, TX
2
Sherman County, TX
2
Somervell County, TX
2
Terry County, TX
2
Walker County, TX
2
Waller County, TX
2
Wheeler County, TX
2
Wilbarger County, TX
2
Winkler County, TX
2
Yoakum County, TX
2
Young County, TX
2
Cameron County, TX
1
Camp County, TX
1
Coke County, TX
1
Collingsworth County, TX
1
El Paso County, TX
1
Fisher County, TX
1
Gaines County, TX
1
Glasscock County, TX
1
Hardeman County, TX
1
Howard County, TX
1
Jeff Davis County, TX
1
King County, TX
1
Lee County, TX
1
Loving County, TX
1
Lynn County, TX
1
Mitchell County, TX
1
Robertson County, TX
1
Rockwall County, TX
1
San Jacinto County, TX
1
Schleicher County, TX
1
Sutton County, TX
1
Terrell County, TX
1
Upton County, TX
1
Ward County, TX
1

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