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1868 U.S. Coast Survey Chart of Fox Islands, Knox County, Maine

FoxIslandsME-uscs-1868
$100.00
Fox Islands thoroughfare, Maine. - Main View
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1868 U.S. Coast Survey Chart of Fox Islands, Knox County, Maine

FoxIslandsME-uscs-1868

Charting the waters of Mid-Coast Maine.

Title


Fox Islands thoroughfare, Maine.
  1868 (dated)     20 x 31.5 in (50.8 x 80.01 cm)     1 : 20000

Description


An 1868 nautical map or chart of the Fox Islands thoroughfare between Vinalhaven and North Haven, Knox County, Maine, produced by the U.S. Coast Survey. In addition to providing a helpful guide for navigators, it demonstrates the increasing standardization and complexity of nautical charts in the second half of the 19th century.
A Closer Look
The thoroughfare is bounded by two large landmasses at top and bottom, the namesake Fox Islands, concurrent with the towns of North Haven and Vinalhaven. Soundings, shoals, rocks, variations, tides, and abbreviations for various features (explained at top-left) are noted throughout, exhibiting tremendous precision. Small red and/or black diamonds with circles underneath indicate buoys. Emphasizing functionality, the Coast Survey has removed topography and other information on landside features, with the exception of coastal rocks and a light station at Brown's Head.
Publication History and Census
This chart was produced by the U.S. Coast Survey in 1868 and was later reissued in 1879 and 1886. It is listed among the holdings of the University of Chicago and the Boston Public Library. This example is in especially good condition for a U.S.C.S. chart of the era.

Cartographer


The Office of the Coast Survey (1807 - present) 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 spirit of the Coast Survey was defined by its first two superintendents. 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. These included using the most advanced techniques and most sophisticated equipment as well as an unstinting attention to detail. Hassler devised a labor intensive triangulation system whereby the entire coast was divided into a series of enormous triangles. These were in turn subdivided into smaller triangulation units that were then individually surveyed. Employing this exacting technique on such a massive scale had never before been attempted. Consequently, Hassler and the Coast Survey under him developed a reputation for uncompromising dedication to the principles of accuracy and excellence. Unfortunately, despite being a masterful surveyor, Hassler was abrasive and politically unpopular, twice losing congressional funding for the Coast Survey. Nonetheless, Hassler led the Coast Survey until his death in 1843, at which time Alexander Dallas Bache, a great-grandson of Benjamin Franklin, took the helm. Bache was fully dedicated to the principles established by Hassler, but proved more politically astute and successfully lobbied Congress to liberally fund the endeavor. Under the leadership of A. D. Bache, the Coast Survey completed its most important work. Moreover, during his long tenure with the Coast Survey, from 1843 to 1865, Bache was a 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) to accommodate topographic as well as nautical surveys. Today the Coast Survey is part of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration or NOAA as the National Geodetic Survey. More by this mapmaker...

Condition


Very good. Linen backed. Light foxing. Tear at left-center margin.

References


OCLC 914853865.