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Archive: 2019 (29 Posts)

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

Sailing the Early Seas with Portolan Charts

Posted by: Ed Redmond

The collections of the Library of Congress include thirteen early nautical or portolan charts published between 1320 and 1734.  Cartographic historians and map librarians are familiar with these early charts.  But what, exactly, is a “portolan” chart?  This post will attempt to address a few of the basic ideas revolving around these early nautical charts. …

A Russian celestial chart showing Perseus holding the head of Medusa..

Constellations in Bronze

Posted by: Cynthia Smith

Above is an image of the constellation Perseus holding the head of Medusa, famous for her serpentine hair.  This chart is from a Russian celestial atlas published in 1829.  I became aware of this unusual atlas while searching for new acquisitions for the collections of Geography and Map Division.  This led me to learn more …

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 …

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

Beyond the Neat Line: Cartography’s Hidden Dimension

Posted by: Julie Stoner

This is a guest post by Kathy Hart, Head of the Research Access and Collection Development Section in the Geography and Map Division. For thematic maps, the map’s margins often contain rich sources of information which supplement the map content. The line separating the map from the information found in its margin is called the …

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

The Los Angeles Oil Boom Through Maps

Posted by: Tim St. Onge

Los Angeles is world famous for its sunny beaches and Hollywood glamour, but did you know that the California metropolis has a long history as a booming oil city? At both large and small scales, maps help tell the stories of this often forgotten part of the Los Angeles’s past and present. The first commercially …

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

Millard Fillmore: Lawyer, President, and Map Collector!

Posted by: Ed Redmond

President Millard Fillmore (1800-1874) was elected to the Office of the Vice President of the United States in 1848 and, due to the untimely death of President Zachary Taylor in 1850, Fillmore became the 13th President of the United States. From the standpoint of the Geography and Map Division, however, Millard Fillmore’s most important contribution …

A panoramic view of Afghanistan.

The Great Game and the Boundaries of Afghanistan

Posted by: Cynthia Smith

Letts’s bird’s eye view of the approaches to India by W.H. Payne was published in London during the early 1900s. Letts, Son & Co. sold stationary, maps and diaries, among them is this striking panoramic view that depicts Russian territory in the north marked with a red dotted line along the Amu Darya River. Mountain ranges, the …