Telephone: 1-888-ASK-USGS
The Board on Geographic Names (BGN) was established by Executive Order 28 on September 4, 1890 as an independent agency. It became part of Interior in 1935. Its purpose is to "maintain uniform geographic name usage throughout the Federal Government."
Government Documents holds an extensive collection of BGN publications, including the following series:
Decisions on Geographic Names in the United States (I 33.5/2:)
Special publications (I 33.7:) Publications giving directions or rules for the treatment of geographic names in specific countries.
Gazetteers (I 33.8: or D 5.319:) Gazetteers are books that list place names with their geographic coordinates so that you can locate places on maps. See also the additional resources on the Place names guide.
Additional documents covering 1910-1932 are available in the Executive Branch Documents microfiche set. Please contact a government documents librarian if you have questions about our holdings.