1873 U.S. Coast Survey Map of the Delta of the Mississippi River
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Description: A very attractive example of the 1873 U.S. Coast Survey nautical chart or map of the Mississippi River Delta and environs. Centered on the fanlike river delta itself, this map extends westward as far as Marsh Island and Vermillion Bay and eastward along the Mississippi Sound as far as Mobile Bay, Alabama. The course of the Mississippi River is charted as far north as New Orleans and Lake Pontchartrain. Countless triangulation points are noted throughout, particularly in Cote Blanche Bay, the Mississippi River Delta, the Mississippi Sound, and Mobile Bay. The chart was produced under the supervision of Benjamin Peirce, Superintendent of the U.S. Coast Survey.
Date: 1873 (dated)
References: Sketch H Showing the Progress of theSurvey in Section No. VIII from 1846-1873.
Cartographer: The Office of the Coast Survey, founded in 1807 by President Thomas Jefferson and Secretary of Commerce Albert Gallatin, is the oldest scientific organization in the U.S. Federal Government. Jefferson created the "Survey of the Coast," as it was then called, in response to a need for accurate navigational charts of the new nation's coasts and harbors. The first superintendent of the Coast Survey was Swiss immigrant and West Point mathematics professor Ferdinand Hassler. Under the direction of Hassler, from 1816 to 1843, the ideological and scientific foundations for the Coast Survey were established. Hassler, and the Coast Survey under him developed a reputation for uncompromising dedication to the principles of accuracy and excellence. Hassler lead the Coast Survey until his death in 1843, at which time Alexander Dallas Bache, a great-grandson of Benjamin Franklin, took the helm. Under the leadership A. D. Bache, the Coast Survey did most of its most important work. During his Superintendence, from 1843 to 1865, Bache was steadfast advocate of American science and navigation and in fact founded the American Academy of Sciences. Bache was succeeded by Benjamin Pierce who ran the Survey from 1867 to 1874. Pierce was in turn succeeded by Carlile Pollock Patterson who was Superintendent from 1874 to 1881. In 1878, under Patterson's superintendence, the U.S. Coast Survey was reorganized as the U.S. Coast and Geodetic Survey (C & GS or USGS) to accommodate topographic as well as nautical surveys. Today the Coast Survey is part of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration or NOAA. Click here for a list of rare maps from the U. S. Coast Survey.
Size: Printed area measures 34 x 21 inches (86.36 x 53.34 centimeters)
Condition: Good. This chart exhibits extreme brittleness throughout. There are a number of archival verso repairs and reinforcements - most along the fragile original fold lines. Original fold lines exhibit some additional toning.
Code: GulfCoast-uscs-1873 (to order by phone call: 646-320-8650)
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