Edo (present day Tokyo) served as the seat of the Tokugawa Shogunate from 1603 to 1867. During the Tokugawa period, the Tokaido Highroad was the most important route in Japan. The Tokaido road stretched over 300 miles from Edo to the capital city of Kyoto. A cartographer named Ochikochi Doin surveyed the route in 1651. […]
Last Monday Americans gathered again after a two-year hiatus to celebrate America’s independence from Great Britain. Flags and fireworks flew over our nation’s capital to mark the anniversary of when the Second Continental Congress unanimously adopted the Declaration of Independence (July 4, 1776), which announced the colonies’ separation from Great Britain, and precipitated the American […]
Recently I came across an interesting map of Florida in our collections. Dated 1823, the map was made only four years after the territory of Florida was ceded to the United States by Spain, and 22 years before it became a state in its own right. The map, authored by surveyor Charles Vignoles and engraved […]
Please join us for the first session in a new series of virtual orientations from the Geography and Map Division! Date: Tuesday, June 14th, 2022 Time: 3:00-4:00 pm (Eastern) Location: Zoom Register for this session here! Reference librarians Amelia Raines and Julie Stoner will present an introduction to the Library of Congress Geography and Map collections. This general […]
For many Americans, Memorial Day marks the unofficial start to summer, and with the holiday weekend behind us, millions will be heading to the beaches, mountains, and everywhere in between for seasonal getaways over the next few months. Some of these vacationers will be among the roughly 5 million annual visitors to the natural wonder […]
John Bachmann, a Swiss born lithographer, moved to the United States shortly after 1848, and went on to produce a series of bird’s eye maps that depict American landscapes in ways that were groundbreaking around the mid-nineteenth century. His work blurred the line between cartography and fine art, and his landscape prints are held by […]
This is a guest post by Sonia Kahn, Library Technician in the Geography and Map Division. On a recent trip to New York City, I frequently found myself in the underbelly of the city, submerged below the hustle and bustle as I was transported up and down Manhattan. I couldn’t help but notice while I was visiting […]
Early maps of Iceland are compelling, they are often embellished with sea monsters and pictorials. Modern maps of the country are equally interesting because of the unique shape and terrain of the island. Iceland, with its glaciers and volcanoes, is accurately nicknamed the “Land of Fire and Ice.” The maps of Iceland featured in this […]
During the month of April, the Library of Congress celebrated the bicentennial of the birth of Frederick Law Olmsted (1822–1903), farmer, journalist, publisher, conservationist, and the first American landscape architect, who designed the grounds surrounding the U.S. Capitol, the Lincoln Memorial, and many other notable public and private green spaces. To celebrate, the Great Hall […]
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. […] […]