1857 U.S. Coast Survey Map or Chart of the Rappahannock River, Virginia
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Description: An attractive hand colored 1857 U.S. Coast Survey nautical chart or map of Virginia's Rappahannock River. Covers the course of the Rappahannock River from Occupacia Creek to Deep Creek. Offers countless depth soundings and navigational notes, but little inland detail. However, it does identify the town of Tappahannock in the western shore. The Rappahannock River, which extends westward into Virginia from the southern part of the Chesapeake Bay, was an important trade artery and boundary since the early colonial period. Shortly after this map was produced the Rappahannock would become a major point of contention in the American Civil War, with the Union controlling its northern shores and the Confederacy, the its southern. The hand color work on this beautiful map is exceptionally well done. The triangulation for this chart was accomplished by Captain W.R. Palmer of the Topological Engineers. The Topography is the work of John Seib and I. Hull Adams. The Hydrography was completed by R. Wainwright. Compiled 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: 1857 (dated)
Source: Report of the Superintendant of the United States Coast Survey, Washington, (1857 edition).
References: Maryland State Archives, MSA SC 1399-1-632.
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 17 x 29 inches (43.18 x 73.66 centimeters)
Condition: Very good. Minor wear, toning, and verso reinforcement on some of the original fold lines. Blank on verso.
Code: RappahannockRiver-uscs-1857 (Necessary for phone inquiries: 646-320-8650)
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