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Category: LCM

Image of an ornate clock showing 2:05 with sculpted male figures sitting on each side of the clock face

Marie Tharp: Mapping the Ocean Floor

Posted by: Neely Tucker

The remarkable career of Marie Tharp, the cartographer and scientist who helped map the ocean's floor for the first time in history, is preserved in her papers at the Library. A pioneering female scientist of 20th century, her work help lay the groundwork for the modern understanding of continental drift and plate tectonics.

Image of an ornate clock showing 2:05 with sculpted male figures sitting on each side of the clock face

The Birth Certificate for “America”

Posted by: Neely Tucker

German cartographer Martin Waldseemuller's 1507 world map was the first to name the New World as "America," for the Italian-born explorer, Amerigo Vespucci. The Library holds the only copy of the map known to still exist.