Housed at the Detroit Public Library Main Branch, the Burton Historical Collection (BHC) began as the private library of Clarence Monroe Burton, a prominent attorney and Detroit historiographer. Mr. Burton’s original intention was to assemble a collection on the history of Detroit. Realizing that Detroit’s history was inextricably connected to that of Michigan and the Old Northwest, Canada and New France, he assembled a collection that is one of the most important private historical collections in the country.

The Detroit Public Library’s “Map Room” provided a home for local and global geographic knowledge since the 1920s before being removed in the early 1990s. After moving from the 3rd floor to its primary home on the 1st floor, the Map Room was noted to hold nearly 7,000 maps and atlases. The contents of the “Map Room” were moved into the collections of BHC in the early 2000s.