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Archive: 2018 (40 Posts)

Brown, red, and yellow tinted map illustration of the continents of Europe, Asia, Africa and Australia, with a circular frame around them

Connecting Collections: The Battle of Trenton and Princeton

Posted by: Ed Redmond

During the winter of 1776-1777, two key battles became an important turning point for George Washington’s Continental Army and the American struggle against the vaunted British Empire. In this blog post we will explore three maps that depict the Battles of Trenton and Princeton, all from different collections in the division and drawn by various …

Brown, red, and yellow tinted map illustration of the continents of Europe, Asia, Africa and Australia, with a circular frame around them

Mappy Thanksgiving!

Posted by: Ed Redmond

According to lore, the very first Thanksgiving was celebrated in what is today Plymouth, Massachusetts. The location owes its name to the English port of Plymouth where the settlers, also referred to as Pilgrims, began their transatlantic voyage. The Mayflower set sail in September 1620 and arrived near Cape Cod, Massachusetts in December 1620. After …

map of the western front in beige and red tones

Mapping Armistice Day: 11 November 1918

Posted by: Ryan Moore

At 11 am on November 11, 1918, the long and terrible fighting that was known as the Great War ended. The final hour of the final day of World War I, as it is known today, was documented by the United States Army on a large 36″ x 32″ map sheet. The mapmakers used a …

Brown, red, and yellow tinted map illustration of the continents of Europe, Asia, Africa and Australia, with a circular frame around them

Announcing GIS Day at the Library of Congress on Wednesday, November 14th!

Posted by: Tim St. Onge

The Library of Congress is proud to celebrate GIS Day on Wednesday, November 14th, with a morning of engaging talks and discussions on the theme of “GIS in K-12 Education: from Data to STEM.” We are pleased to feature Representative Bruce Westerman (AR-4), who will speak about the Geospatial Data Act and the role of …

Brown, red, and yellow tinted map illustration of the continents of Europe, Asia, Africa and Australia, with a circular frame around them

Mapping the Way to Nirvana: a Burmese Theravada Buddhist Carving

Posted by: John Hessler

In the sky, there is no distinction of east and west; people create distinctions out of their own minds and then believe them to be true.  –Guatama Buddha Recently, the Library of Congress’ Geography and Map Division, acquired a rare eighteenth century carving of a Theravada Buddhist cosmography that originally came from Myanmar (formerly known …

Brown, red, and yellow tinted map illustration of the continents of Europe, Asia, Africa and Australia, with a circular frame around them

Exploring County Land Ownership Maps

Posted by: Ed Redmond

The following post is adapted from an essay written by Richard W. Stephenson, former Specialist in American Cartographic History at the Library of Congress, in “Land Ownership Maps: A Checklist of Nineteenth Century Unites States County Maps in the Library of Congress.” The essay has been edited and updated by Ed Redmond, a cartographic reference …

Signature of Famous Botanist Discovered on Map of Japan

Posted by: Ryan Moore

The signature of the American botanist who helped bring the famous Japanese cherry blossom trees to the United States was discovered by this author on a 1901 map of Japan. David Fairchild (1869-1954) traveled the world on behalf of the U.S. government and introduced more than 200,000 varieties of crops and plants to this country. …