1864 U.S.C.S. Chart of the Mississippi River Grand Gulf to New Carthage (Jefferson Davis Plantation)

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Title:    Mississippi River Grand Gulf, Turner’s Point, New Carthage Reconnaissance for the use of the Mississippi Squadron

Description:    This is a beautiful hand colored 1864 United States Costal Survey chart or map of a sinuous part of the Mississippi River from Grand Gulf, Mississippi to New Carthage, Louisiana. The bends in the river are named, as are the many river islands shown. Notes towns, wood lots, landings and farms, many of which are shown with family names. This map is especially important for Civil War buffs as it includes the Jefferson Davis Plantation. This map was created under the direction of A. D. Bache, Superintendent of the Survey of the Coast of the United States and one of the most influential American cartographers of the 19th century.

Date:    1864

References:    None found.

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 21 x 17 inches (53.34 x 43.18 centimeters)

Condition:    Fine condition. Professional restored and re-backed with linen.

Code:   MissRive2Col-USCS-1864 (Necessary for phone inquiries: 646-320-8650)