Diseños — Land Grant Maps

The manuscript maps of Mexican California. These diseños are the hand-drawn sketch maps rancho claimants submitted to establish their grants, preserved in the U.S. private land-claim case files and held by The Bancroft Library, UC Berkeley. They show boundaries, buildings, watercourses, and named landmarks of the ranchos as their owners understood them. Every map is zoomable and links to the archival original. Labels are working descriptions drawn from the catalog; scholarly notes will follow.