About

Our story

Cartouche Maps makes historical maps from research data. Every road, trail, battle and place comes from a published dataset, and every map is set in the style of a 19th-century atlas: hachured mountains, Latin or period names, careful type.

They are not AI-generated maps and not reproductions of old ones. Each sheet is drawn new, checked against its sources, and credited in full.

Cartouche Maps is run by Thomas van der Bruggen Holding B.V. in the Netherlands. Prints are made to order by our production partner Gelato, close to where they are delivered, in the United States and in Europe.

Questions, a custom size, a map you would like to see? Write to info@cartouchemaps.com.

Who makes these maps

Thomas van der Bruggen

Founder and cartographer

Thomas makes the Cartouche maps in the Netherlands. Each one starts from a published research dataset, such as Itiner-e for the Roman roads, Pleiades for ancient places or the National Park Service surveys for American trails and battlefields, and is drawn with open-source GIS tools: QGIS, PostGIS and GDAL.

The style comes from late-19th-century atlases: hachured mountains, period names and careful type. Every place name and figure on a sheet is checked against its source before it goes to print, and every source is credited on the print and on its product page.

How we make our maps

Detail of the Roman roads map at print resolution

Printed near you
Made to order by our partner Gelato in the US and Europe

Archival paper
Museum-quality matte stock, framed or unframed

Sources credited
Every dataset and licence named with the print

Drawn from data
Not AI-generated maps, not reproductions