1874 U.S. Coast Survey Map of the Mississippi Delta
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Description: The culmination of nearly 15 years of intense survey work, this is 1874 nautical chart is possibly the most attractive and dramatic map of the Mississippi River Delta to emerge from the U.S. Coast Survey. Due to the quick and dramatic changes in the Delta area due to sudden storms and hurricanes, charting the Mississippi Delta was one of the U.S. Coast Survey's most daunting tasks. Details the course of the Mississippi River from Quarantine bay southward to where it divides into numerous passes and bays. Names Grand Bay, Bird Island Sound, West Bay, East Bay, Garden Island Bay, Blind Bay, Bull Bay and Bay Rondo. Also offers some inland detail noting Fort Jackson, Fort St. Philip, various farms, several canals, numerous bayous, and important lighthouses. Thousands of soundings in feet. Notes on tides, sailing instructions, and commentary on the chart appear in the upper left quadrant. The triangulation, topography and hydrography for this work is largely the work of F. H. Gerdes, Ch. H Boyd, Guthrie, and their assistants. The work of surveying the Mississippi Delta was commenced at the instigation Superintendent of the Survey A. D. Bache but not fully realized until the tenure of Benjamin Peirce.
Date: 1874 (dated)
Source: Report of the Superintendant of the U.S. Coast Survey, (1874 edition).
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.
Cartographer: Ferdinand H. Gerdes was one of the most active members of the U.S. Coast Survey team. His most important work includes several surveys of New York Harbor as well as detailed surveys of Florida, the Gulf Coast, and up the Mississippi River. Like most of the members of the Coast Survey, Gerdes was strongly pro-Union and worked diligently during the Civil War to provide Union commanders accurate surveying and cartographic materials. Gerdes is known to have commanded the ‘Sachem' and, during the Civil War, was heavily engaged with Union efforts to map and ultimately control, the Mississippi River. Click here for a list of rare maps from Ferdinand H. Gerdes.
Size: Printed area measures 33.5 x 41 inches (85.09 x 104.14 centimeters)
Condition: Very good. Minor toning and verso reinforcemnt along original fold lines. Else clean.
Code: MissDelta-uscs-1874 (Necessary for phone inquiries: 646-320-8650)
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