American History Atlas

The Map

Places in the atlas, shown on today’s state borders. Tap a marker to open its entry. Historical maps — of territories, purchases, and homelands — appear on the entries themselves, so you can compare past and present.

Base map: U.S. Census Bureau boundaries via the us-atlas project, Albers USA projection (Alaska and Hawaii shown as insets). State capitals and their locations: Wikidata, checked 2026-10-15.

All 50 states and their capitals

Washington, D.C., the national capital, is a federal district, not a state.

Midwest

2

The carved faces of Washington, Jefferson, Theodore Roosevelt, and Lincoln on Mount Rushmore

1927 – Oct 31, 1941Place

Mount Rushmore

Four presidents carved into the Black Hills — a national symbol on land sacred to the Lakota

The Battle of the Little Bighorn · Sitting Bull · Red Power and the American Indian Movement · George Washington

9

Earthen mounds at Cahokia Mounds State Historic Site

c. 1050–1350Place

Cahokia

The largest city in North America north of Mexico before 1492

The Peopling of the Americas · The Columbian Exchange

–

A Route 66 highway shield sign

1926–1985Place

Route 66

The “Mother Road” from Chicago to Santa Monica

The Dust Bowl · The Great Depression · World War II · Henry Ford

Northeast

3

Ellis Island immigration station in 1902

1892–1924Place

Ellis Island

The nation’s busiest immigration station, 1892–1924

Immigration Act of 1924 · The Chinese Exclusion Act · The Gilded Age · The Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire

4

The Statue of Liberty on its pedestal, holding up her torch

Oct 28, 1886–presentPlace

Statue of Liberty

France’s gift to the United States, and a welcome to generations of immigrants

Declaration of Independence · The Gilded Age · Lyndon B. Johnson · Immigration Act of 1924

5

Independence Hall in Philadelphia

Place

Independence Hall

Where the Declaration and the Constitution were debated and signed

Declaration of Independence · The Constitutional Convention · The Continental Congress · The Constitution of the United States

South

6

The armory engine house known as John Brown’s Fort at Harpers Ferry

Place

Harpers Ferry

Armory town where John Brown struck at slavery

John Brown · Abolitionism · The Civil War · Frederick Douglass

15

Little Rock Central High School

Place

Little Rock Central High School

Site of the 1957 desegregation crisis, now a National Historic Site

The Little Rock Nine · Brown v. Board of Education · The Civil Rights Movement · Thurgood Marshall

Southeast

16

Aerial view of the Castillo de San Marcos and the town of St. Augustine, Florida, 1965

Sep 8, 1565Place

St. Augustine

The oldest continuously occupied European-founded city in the United States

The Voyages of Columbus · The Founding of Jamestown · The Roanoke Colony · The Pueblo Revolt

Southwest

12

Cliff Palace at Mesa Verde

c. 1180–1300Place

Mesa Verde

Cliff dwellings of the Ancestral Pueblo people

The Pueblo Revolt · The Peopling of the Americas · Theodore Roosevelt

14

The great kiva plaza at Chetro Ketl in Chaco Canyon

c. 850–1150Place

Chaco Canyon

Ceremonial center of the ancestral Pueblo world

The Peopling of the Americas · The Pueblo Revolt

Washington, D.C.

7

The north front of the White House, with its columned portico, seen across the lawn

Oct 13, 1792–presentPlace

The White House

The president’s home and office since 1800 — built partly by enslaved workers, burned in 1814, and rebuilt more than once

The Presidency · George Washington · John Adams · The War of 1812

8

Aerial view of the National Mall

Place

The National Mall

“America’s Front Yard” in Washington, D.C.

March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom · George Washington · Abraham Lincoln · Martin Luther King Jr.

West

1

Thomas Moran’s 1872 painting of the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone, with the Lower Falls between golden cliffs

Mar 1, 1872–presentPlace

Yellowstone National Park

The world’s first national park, set aside in 1872 on top of an active volcano

Ulysses S. Grant · Theodore Roosevelt · The Environmental Movement · Manifest Destiny

10

The detention barracks at the Angel Island Immigration Station

Jan 21, 1910 – 1940Place

Angel Island Immigration Station

The West Coast station built to enforce exclusion, 1910–1940

The Chinese Exclusion Act · Immigration Act of 1924 · The Gilded Age · The California Gold Rush

11

Alcatraz Island seen from the east

Place

Alcatraz Island

San Francisco Bay island — prison, and site of the 1969–1971 Indian occupation

Red Power and the American Indian Movement · The Civil Rights Movement · The Wounded Knee Massacre · Indian Removal

13

People exercising at Manzanar with mountains behind

Place

Manzanar

A War Relocation Center in California’s Owens Valley, now a National Historic Site

Japanese American Incarceration · Executive Order 9066 · Korematsu v. United States · World War II

Historical maps in the atlas

Logical map of the ARPANET in September 1973

1969–presentConcept

The Digital Revolution

Computers, the internet, and smartphones transform American life

Historical map showing territories after the Kansas-Nebraska Act

May 30, 1854Document

The Kansas-Nebraska Act

The law that repealed the Missouri Compromise and set Kansas bleeding, 1854

Map of free and slave territory under the Missouri Compromise

Feb 1819 – Aug 1821Event

The Missouri Compromise

Congress balances slave and free states, 1820

Map of Cold War alliances in 1974

1947 – Dec 25, 1991War

The Cold War

The global rivalry between the United States and the Soviet Union, 1947–1991