Call up Argosy books in Manhattan, I’m sure they’ll be happy to sell you something: http://www.argosybooks.com/shop/argosy/index.html

If the budget is too tight to actually buy something then start calling local libraries and museums.

You may find something useful here:

http://www.lib.utexas.edu/maps/historical/history_world.html

Most are in the public domain; check the FAQ.

Do a search for "old map" at istockphoto.com and you'll find tons of them. You can refine your search with words like "african" or "ocean" or whatever.

They aren't free, but the prices are extremely reasonable for most of them.

The Library of Congress has a few old maps on their flickr photostream, but I bet if you called them they could help. Actually, any big, old library or historical society would be a good place to start. Just bring a digital camera - photocopiers won't do! Some old library's even have a copy stand available to mount your camera.

When I read ‘old world-esque map’ I initially thought of Sebastian Nagel’s illustrations in his ‘Tierra Nueva’ specimen:
http://opentype.info/blog/2010/08/14/tierra-nueva-font/

But it seems that’s not the style you’re looking for.

Evan,

Pictures of real Ye Olde Worlde maps are by definition bitmaps (as said above, photographs of actual old maps). They didn't think in the 15th century of supplying vector files :-)
However, the samples you point to are all vector files, and since it seems this is for a corporate identity, that would be preferable over a bitmap.

Using data from GSSHS, I can produce high-quality Illustrator files in just about any map projection you can think of (Mercator -- deprecated, actually --, Mollweide, Robinson, Werner, and loads more), and even throw in country borders. But there are two huge "howevers":

1. The data is contemporary. I don't think Dubai's Palm Islands are incorporated (I'd have to check), but the Netherlands for example have all of their polders filled in. .. Come to think of it, I don't think that's visible on a global map ...

2. The country borders are contemporary as well! In your link of examples, the Illustrator file 'with borders' clearly shows Yugoslavia as one big country (but not the Soviet Union). Whether or not that makes it "ye olde worlde" depends on your age ...

A third 'however' is that it'd require you to manually make it old style. Sepia? Blurry lines? It mainly depends on the intended target size & usage.

> since it seems this is for a corporate identity,
> [vector] would be preferable over a bitmap

That's a good point; logos are generally vector art.

Another thing to keep in mind is that while the map itself would be in the public domain due to its age, the actual photograph of it might be copyrighted by the photographer. And this would make sense as the photographer may have gone to some time and expense to find, photograph, and retouch it. And in some cases the photographer might be able to easily tell you're using his photo due to a digital watermark, or some specific retouching he's done to it, etc.

So be sure that both the map AND the photo of it are in the public domain (or use a licensed photo, like from a stock photo company, and be sure the license agreement permits use in logos). Or use a vector image made specifically for the identity.

Blueflag--that is just about the perfect link. Those maps look great. Now to see if we can use them--which shouldn't be too hard to figure out since I live in Austin and have access to UT's great libraries. That points me to a question I was greatly curious about, thank you to James. Some maps might need a credit for usage, some can't be used at all for this. We'll see.

But what the map is actually needed for, at this point, is the landing page background of the client's webpage. We're going with a compass for the mark, and this will tie together with that mark. I suppose it would be nice to use it on the business card design as well, but at the very least, for the website, perhaps its not too bad a thing to have a small, somewhat unnoticeable credit in the bottom corner. Maybe if it comes down to it they'll let me go take my own pictures so I can have infinite use.

And Joe, thank for the link to Tierra Nueva. I'm not sure if my client is looking for that direction with the type, we'll come to that bridge. They would like a nice script for their name and my first thought is to checkout Sudtipos and see if something will match the mark--but I'll certainly check out if this could work as well.

If this is any use to you, I also needed some old cartography/maps for one of my 2nd year semesters the best reasource I found was on Flickr: http://www.flickr.com/groups/24677344@N00/