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Posted by: John Hessler
In the sky, there is no distinction of east and west; people create distinctions out of their own minds and then believe them to be true. –Guatama Buddha Recently, the Library of Congress’ Geography and Map Division, acquired a rare eighteenth century carving of a Theravada Buddhist cosmography that originally came from Myanmar (formerly known …
Posted in: 18th century cartography, Asian History
Posted by: Ryan Moore
The signature of the American botanist who helped bring the famous Japanese cherry blossom trees to the United States was discovered by this author on a 1901 map of Japan. David Fairchild (1869-1954) traveled the world on behalf of the U.S. government and introduced more than 200,000 varieties of crops and plants to this country. …
Posted in: Asian History
Posted by: Ryan Moore
Cartographic depictions of Seoul, the present-day capital of South Korea, during the time of the Japanese occupation of Korea are not often seen and the surviving artifacts a bit rare. The period of Japanese influence and control over Korea lasted from 1905 until 1945. It began with a protectorate that escalated into a full-scale colony …
Posted in: Asian History, City Histories, Military History
Posted by: Ryan Moore
Hue is a city in central Vietnam, which most Americans may know from the 1968 Battle of Hue, one of the longest and bloodiest battles in the Vietnam War. However, less is known about America’s involvement with the city during World War II. This blog post will present an American military intelligence map from each …
Posted in: Asian History, Military History
Posted by: Julie Stoner
I love watching the Olympic Games, both summer and winter! So with the Winter Olympics starting this week in P’yongch’ang, I decided to dive into our collections to learn more about historic maps of Korea, encompassing what is now North and South Korea. As I began browsing our digitized collections, I was first struck by …
Posted in: Asian History, Manuscripts
Posted by: Ryan Moore
During the Vietnam War, Long Binh Post was the U.S. Army’s largest base located in the former South Vietnam. It was situated between Bien Hoa, the location of a large American airbase, and Saigon, the capital of South Vietnam. The Geography and Map Division holds a map from the war that was printed and created …
Posted in: Asian History, Military History
Posted by: Ryan Moore
The North Korean capital city Pyongyang has both a storied and troubled history. Among the reasons it fascinates, plain curiosity rises to the top of list, because the North Korean government has largely closed off the country from the rest of world since the end of the Korean War in 1953. Correspondingly, accurate maps of …
Posted in: Asian History, Borders, City Histories