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Posted by: Cynthia Smith
The title of this post does not refer to the science fiction novel of the same name by Jules Verne. It refers to the phantom island Frisland which was commonly shown on maps of the North Atlantic Ocean during the 16th and 17th centuries. Frisland never existed, however, cartographers believed that the island was real …
Posted in: 16th century cartography, 17th century cartography, 18th century cartography, Exploration
![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](https://blogs.loc.gov/maps/files/2019/10/Untitled-1.jpg)
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
Posted by: Julie Stoner
Board games have been played around the world for millennia. One of the oldest board games known to exist, named Senet, appears in an Egyptian hieroglyph from about 5,000 years ago! The late 18th century saw a rise in the creation of board games in Europe, many of which were educational, designed to be an …
Posted in: 19th century cartography
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. …
Posted in: Exploration
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 …
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](https://blogs.loc.gov/maps/files/2019/08/Untitled-3.jpg)
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
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 …
Posted in: Guest Posts
Posted by: Ryan Moore
Over the years of this writer’s service at the Library of Congress, veterans and their families have sent me questions about maps that show the locations of U.S. forces in Thailand during the Vietnam War. Chief among the reasons that they have sought this information is because some American personnel were exposed to Agent Orange …
Posted in: Asian History, Military History
![Detail from Africa : corrected from the observations of the Royal Society at London and Paris. [London : John Senex, 1725?] Geography and Map Division. LC call number G8200 1725 .S4](https://blogs.loc.gov/maps/files/2019/07/default-2.jpg)
Posted by: Mike Klein
German genocide in southwest Africa
Posted in: African History