--- title: Browse artifacts on a map description: Explore an institution's collection geographically — the map is a Browse view with search, filters, collection scope, historic map layers, and shareable camera positions. section: guides order: 8 updated: 2026-07-16 verified: 2026-07-16 related: [guides/browse-views, guides/public-discovery, guides/working-with-artifacts, guides/subjects-concepts-and-authorities] features: [map-browse, places-and-maps, georeferenced-maps] --- # Browse artifacts on a map See where a collection's material comes from: the map plots every artifact with a positioned photo or a located place, so a visitor can pan a region, spot a neighborhood, and open the records taken there. The map is one of the [Browse views](/docs/en-US/guides/browse-views), the institution's full-viewport visual surface. You reach it at `/your-institution/browse?view=map`. Visitors see public artifacts; signed-in members see everything their role allows, and child-safe filtering applies as usual. ## Open the map - **From Browse** — open `/your-institution/browse` and pick **Map** in the view switcher on the toolbar. Your current search and filters carry over, so the map shows the same records you were just looking at. - **From the institution home page** — select the map link next to *Browse all artifacts*. - **Directly** — visit `/your-institution/browse?view=map`, or follow a shared map link. To map a single collection, open that collection's Browse (`/your-institution/c/collection-slug/browse?view=map`) — the map is scoped to the collection. ## What appears on the map Each artifact gets one marker. Preservated checks these sources, in order, and plots the artifact at the first one it finds: 1. **A hand-placed location on the primary image** — a curator marked exactly where the photo's subject is. 2. **The primary image's own camera location** — GPS coordinates embedded in the photo file itself, used when there's no hand-placed subject location. 3. **A located place** — the first of the artifact's linked places that carries coordinates, from a gazetteer record (GeoNames, Getty TGN, Wikidata) or an AI-resolved location. See [How places get coordinates](/docs/en-US/guides/working-with-artifacts#how-places-get-coordinates). 4. If none of these are available, the artifact is left off the map rather than guessed at. A location on the primary image — hand-placed or from camera GPS — takes priority over a located place, even when the artifact has both: the photo's own location is a deliberate, precise assertion of where it belongs, while a place chip more often marks a city or region than the exact spot. Only the artifact's **primary image** contributes a location this way; coordinates on other linked photos don't count toward the marker. A plain typed place label with no linked authority record puts nothing on the map by itself. Linking the place later, or hand-placing the primary image, adds the artifact automatically. :::note A primary image restricted to members or staff never supplies a map location, to any viewer — including staff — even if it has been precisely hand-placed. This keeps a sensitive photo's location from surfacing on the public map to people who couldn't see the photo itself. If a location should be visible, put it on a place instead, or use a public image. ::: Visibility always applies: the map never reveals an artifact the viewer couldn't open from Browse. ## Read the map - **Thumbnail markers** are individual artifacts. Select one for a preview card with its title and image, then open the full record from the card. - **Numbered bubbles** are clusters — areas holding too many artifacts to draw individually. Select a bubble to zoom toward it; keep zooming and clusters break apart into thumbnails. - The toolbar's **"in view" count** tells you how many mapped artifacts the current viewport holds. ## Search and filter Type in the Browse toolbar's search box to narrow the map to matching artifacts as you type — the same search Browse uses, including descriptions, transcripts, and OCR text. Press `/` to jump to the search box and `Esc` to clear it. :::note When the view is zoomed out far enough to show clusters, search still narrows the counts, but you'll need to zoom in before individual matching thumbnails appear. ::: ### Filters work on the map The map view uses Browse's full **filter drawer** — type, creator, subject, place, people, and dates all narrow the mapped set directly, no round-trip through Browse required. Open the filter drawer from the toolbar, choose your filters, and the markers update. Sorting is the one control that's off here: a map has no reading order, so the sort selector is disabled in the map view. Filters live in the URL, so a filtered map view can be bookmarked or sent to someone else. ## Historic map layers If the collection holds [georeferenced maps](/docs/en-US/reference/supported-file-formats#georeferenced-maps) — scanned historic maps that carry geographic coordinates — the map view can lay them over the modern basemap, in their correct position, underneath the artifact markers. Compare an 1890 plat with today's streets, or stack two survey years over each other. Open the **Layers** button in the map's top-right control column, just below the zoom buttons. Its badge counts the layers currently turned on. The panel has up to four sections: - **Base** — switch the backdrop between street and satellite imagery. Your choice is remembered on this device. - **Overlays** — the historic maps you've turned on, in drawing order (topmost first). Each has its own opacity slider, **up/down** buttons to change the stacking order, **Fit** to frame the map's coverage, and a link to open the map's own artifact record. Clear its checkbox to turn it off again. - **Maps in view** — historic maps whose coverage overlaps what you're currently looking at, filtered by the same search and filters as the markers. Maps covering more of your view are listed first; a star marks maps your institution has featured. Tick one to turn it on. Nothing is ever turned on for you. - **Reference overlays** — institution-curated backdrop images (where configured), with simple show/hide toggles. These are separate from the collection maps above: they aren't artifacts and don't follow search or filters. A few things to know: - You can have up to **three** historic maps on at once. At the limit, turn one off before adding another. - Turning a layer on fetches its geographic data on demand, so the panel stays fast even over a large map collection. If more maps cover the view than the panel can list, it says so — zoom in or filter to narrow the list. - Layers you've turned on **stay on** while you pan, search, or filter. A layer that no longer matches is labeled *Outside current view* or *Outside current filters* instead of being switched off — use **Fit** to jump back to it, or turn it off yourself. - Layers, their order, and their opacities are kept in the address bar, so a comparison you've set up can be bookmarked or shared. If a shared link includes a layer the recipient isn't allowed to see (or one that has since been unpublished), the panel notes that a shared layer is unavailable and shows the rest. To find georeferenced maps anywhere in Browse — not just on the map — use the **Georeferenced maps** filter in the filter drawer. It narrows any Browse view to artifacts that have a positioned historic map, whether or not a layer is currently turned on. ## Share a map view The address bar tracks where you are: the camera position and zoom are kept in the URL as `?center=lng,lat&zoom=z`, alongside your search and filters. Copy the address and the recipient lands on the same view — subject, of course, to what *their* account is allowed to see. Your own device also remembers the last position and zoom you settled on, so returning to the map without a shared link picks up where you left off. A URL camera always takes precedence. ## If the map is empty - **"No mapped artifacts in this view"** — nothing in the current viewport matches; zoom out or clear the search. - **"No artifacts have map coordinates yet"** — nothing in the whole collection has a hand-placed or camera location on its primary image, or a located place. Two ways to fill the map in: link artifact places to a gazetteer record (open an artifact for editing, type the place name, and pick the matching GeoNames, Getty TGN, or Wikidata entry), or hand-place a primary image's subject location directly on its map. Either one brings coordinates, and the artifact appears on the map immediately. A collection imported with plain-text place names can usually be mapped quickly: the place labels are already on the records, and [AI analysis](/docs/en-US/guides/ai-analysis) or a staff pass through the most common places links them to coordinates. Photos with embedded camera GPS are mapped automatically at import, with no extra work needed.