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Posted by: Meagan Snow
Happy GIS Day from the Library of Congress! Today the Library celebrates GIS Day with a virtual event exploring the role of GIS in addressing humanitarian disasters. Today’s event aims to highlight the role that geospatial data and GIS technologies can play in creating positive change in the face of global humanitarian challenges. Geography …
Posted in: Geographic Information Science
Posted by: Carissa Pastuch
This is a guest post by Diane Schug-O’Neill, Digital Conversion Coordinator, in the Geography and Map Division. In 1925, Silas Sandgreen was commissioned by the Library of Congress to create a map of Disko Bugt (also seen as Disko Bay), Greenland. Disko Bay is a large bay located on the western coast of Greenland, along …
Posted in: 20th century cartography, Guest Posts
Posted by: Sonia Kahn
Today on Halloween children often dress up as witches and wizards with brimmed hats and broom sticks. Many find joy in the celebration of all things spooky by donning a costume and an alternate identity for a single night. Of course 300 plus years ago this innocuous enough tradition was non-existent. No, in fact, quite …
Posted in: 19th century cartography, American History, City Histories
Posted by: Cynthia Smith
Starting in the 16th century, an island off the coast of Newfoundland was labeled as the “Isle of Demons.” Rumors spread that those who ventured near the island heard strange noises. Mariners believed that the Isle of Demons was inhabited by evil spirits; they were afraid to visit the island or to sail near it. …
Posted in: 16th century cartography, 17th century cartography
Posted by: Meagan Snow
Many things unite humankind across the centuries, but chief among them is the great eternal question: what time can I expect the mail today? In today’s world, we’ve become accustomed to our new-found ability to track packages on our phones as they move toward us in real-time. Let’s take a look back in time to …
Posted in: 17th century cartography, 19th century cartography
Posted by: Amelia Raines
“The face of the water, in time, became a wonderful book — a book that was a dead language to the uneducated passenger, but which told its mind to me without reserve, delivering its most cherished secrets as clearly as if it uttered them with a voice. And it was not a book to be …
Posted in: 19th century cartography, American History, Imaginary maps, Military History
Posted by: Carissa Pastuch
Please join us for the third session in a new series of virtual orientations from the Geography and Map Division! Date: Tuesday, October 11th, 2022 Time: 3:00-4:00 pm (Eastern) Location: Zoom Register for this session here! Reference librarians Carissa Pastuch and Amelia Raines will present an introduction to the collections of the Geography and Map Division at …
Posted in: Geography and Map Division
Posted by: Meagan Snow
In mid-19th Century America, an expanding nation had a major transportation need: rail lines that could stretch from coast to coast. Western explorations and survey crews began to sketch out potential railroad routes in the decades before the American Civil War. Lloyd’s American railroad map of the US, seen below, shows three proposed rail routes: …
Posted in: 19th century cartography, American History
Posted by: Julie Stoner
This is a guest post by Manuscript Division reference librarian Lara Szypszak. On September 17, 1862, Union and Confederate forces met just outside the town of Sharpsburg, Maryland. The battle, known by Union forces as the Battle of Antietam (after the nearby creek) and by the Confederates as the Battle of Sharpsburg (after the nearest …
Posted in: 19th century cartography, Guest Posts, Military History