1866 U.S. Coast Survey Chart or Map of the Mississippi Sound - Western Part
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Description: This is a highly unusual and rarely seen 1860 U.S. Coast Survey chart or map of the western part of the Mississippi Sound. Covers the coast of Mississippi roughly from St. Joseph Island (today's Grand Island) and St. Louis Bay eastward as far as Round Island and the mouth of the Pascagoula River. Offers extraordinary detail throughout including sailing instructions, notes on tides, notes on winds, identification of various light houses and buoys, and literally thousands of depth soundings. Includes St. Louis Bay, Biloxi Bay, and the Pascagoula River. What makes this chart so unusual is that it was never completed - at least not as planned. Possibly stymied by the outbreak of the American Civil War, the Western Chart was completed, but the companion eastern chart, to our knowledge, does not exist.
The triangulation for this chart was completed by F.H. Gerdes, S. A. Gilbert, and J. E. Hilgard. The Hydrography was completed by a party under the command of C. P. Patterson and B.F Sands. This chart was compiled under the supervision of A. D. Bache, one of the most influential Superintendents in the history of the Coast Survey. Created in 1860, but not published until after the Civil War the 1867 supplement to the 1866 edition of the Superintendent's Report.
Date: 1860 (dated)
Source: Report of the Superintendant of the United States Coast Survey, Washington, (1867 Supplement to the 1865 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 42 x 32 inches (106.68 x 81.28 centimeters)
Condition: Very good condition. Minor discoloration, wear, and some verso repairs on original fold lines.
Code: MississippiSoundWest-uscs-1866 (Necessary for phone inquiries: 646-320-8650)
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