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Archive: 2021 (46 Posts)

View of First Avenue. Power lines hang across the road, where a street car is driving down the road. Pedestrians fill the sidewalk.

Walking Seattle’s Streets A Hundred Years Ago

Posted by: Meagan Snow

Let’s journey back a hundred years in time to the downtown streets of Seattle, Washington. On a clear day, you can see the Olympic Mountains from the fish markets along Railroad Avenue. Eddie Carlson, who will one day bring the 1962 World’s Fair – and the Space Needle – to Seattle, is now just a …

The map shows both the planned itinerary of La Pérouse and the routes of the principal European voyages in the Pacific up to the 1780s.

“Pérouse”-ing the Pacific

Posted by: Carissa Pastuch

Jean-François de Galaup La Pérouse (1741–88) was a French naval officer and explorer, known for his discoveries in the Pacific, particularly off the northern coasts of America and Asia, and for his tragic demise near Vanikoro in the Santa Cruz Islands (present-day Solomon Islands) in 1788. Born in Albi, France, La Pérouse joined the French …

A stick chart of the Marshall Islands.

The Unique Seafaring Charts of the Marshall Islands

Posted by: Cynthia Smith

The Geography and Map Division holds thousands of vintage and antique nautical charts. Among the most compelling navigational charts in our holdings are the traditional stick charts of the Marshall Islands. The first time that I saw them, displayed in shadow boxes, I thought they looked like striking works of modern art. My curiosity led …

Map sheet that shows a portion of the Niger River with vegetation and towns marked along the banks.

A Trip Down the Niger River

Posted by: Amelia Raines

In 1887, a French lieutenant named Edmond Caron sailed a gunboat down the Niger River to gather information and expand French influence in the western Sahel. After setting out from the colonial capital in Saint-Louis, on the Atlantic coast of Senegal, he traveled inland to the Inner Niger Delta of modern central Mali, an area …

To Have Traveled So Far: The Provenance and History of the Kislak Encounter Paintings

Posted by: John Hessler

This post is part of the series Excavating Archaeology, which features selections from, and research on, the Jay I. Kislak Collection of the Archaeology & History of the Early Americas and related collections, housed in the Geography and Map Division and in the Rare Book & Special Collections Division of the Library of Congress. Dr. …

Circular world map with cherubs blowing wind towards it illuminated in gold.

Magnificent Maps From the World Digital Library

Posted by: Julie Stoner

Launched in 2009, the World Digital Library [WDL] was a project of the U.S. Library of Congress, with the support of UNESCO, and contributions from libraries, archives, museums, educational institutions, and international organizations around the world. The WDL sought to preserve and share some of the world’s most important cultural objects, increasing access to cultural …