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Archive: 2019 (5 Posts)

This map indicates the location of ships sunk by U-boat activity in the Mediterranean, the Atlantic, and the North Sea, specifically within those areas open to unrestricted warfare.  The total was roughly 7,500 vessels.

Risky Business

Posted by: Mike Klein

During World War I, the most hazardous place to be, relatively speaking, was not on the battlefield, but inside a German U-boat. Throughout the war, Germany deployed 375 Unterseebooten, i.e. U-boats or submarines; 202 were lost in action, or about fifty-four percent. Similarly, of the 17,000 sailors who served in them, about 5,100 were lost …

Posted in: European History, Military History

Plan goroda Dalʹni︠a︡go / glavnyĭ inzhener V. Sakharov.  [Russia]: Litografiia T. Daloniago, [around 1899].  Map, lithographic print.  Scale approximately 1:21,000. 0.01 [represents] 100 sagenes.  Geography and Map Division.  LC call number G7824.D3 1899 .S3

A Rare Russian Plan of Dalian

Posted by: Mike Klein

In 1898 Tsarist Russia wrested from China a long-term lease for Port Arthur (Lushun), its new-found warm-water port on the east coast restricted to use by the Russian navy.  Under pressure from Great Britain and Germany, two other European powers with concessions in China, Russia agreed to establish an open port on the southern tip …

Posted in: 19th century cartography

Mappa Geographica Circuli Metalliferi Electoratus Saxoniae cum omnibus quae in eo comprehenduntur Praefecturis et Dynastiis quales sunt.  (Augsburg:  Mattaeus Seutter, 174-).  Copperplate engraving on two separate sheets, with water color wash.  Scale ca. 1:10,250,000.  Geography and Map Division.  Germany – Saxony – [174-] – no scale -- M. Seutter

A Unique View of Saxony’s Silver Mines

Posted by: Mike Klein

Who says you can’t go Baroque from mining? On the contrary, many European regions, states, and principalities owed their prosperity to mining.  Among them was the Electorate of Saxony, long a state of the former Holy Roman Empire.  Saxony’s Ore Mountains, or Erzgebirge, were particularly blessed with silver, serving as one of its main sources …

Posted in: 18th century cartography

Il Tricolore Italiano in Tripolitania e Cirenaica Diario Illustrata della Geurra Italo-Turca. Panorama dimostrativo della Battaglia del 26 Ottobre 1911, 1911 November 1. Geography and Map Division, Library of Congress.

A Cartographic Memento From a Small War

Posted by: Mike Klein

Most historians consider the Italo-Ottoman War, 1911-12, as a prelude to World War I. Although it has fallen into obscurity, some relics, such as this compelling panoramic map of the war’s first major engagement, may revive our interest. Italy’s claims to North Africa were rooted in Roman times. Over the millennia, the provinces of Tripolitania …

Posted in: Military History