As christmas presents, i got paper maps of the area where i live from the late 19th century to the early 20th century. Over that period, it went from farmland with a few roads through it to a dense suburb. There are some fascinating details, like a tile kiln which presumably supplied a lot of the neighbourhood (there are very distinctive tiles in some estates), and patterns of old land use still present in the shape of the streets today.

That's a great idea as a present. How little the street patterns change over the years is fascinating.