"The ""Connected"" National Map: From Lands Surveyed to Territorial Acquisitions -- Illustrations"

Johnson, Jenny Marie; Chrisman, Nicholas R.

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https://hdl.handle.net/2142/109171 Copy

Description

Title

"The ""Connected"" National Map: From Lands Surveyed to Territorial Acquisitions -- Illustrations"

Author(s)

• Johnson, Jenny Marie
• Chrisman, Nicholas R.

Issue Date

2021

Keyword(s)

• History of Cartography
• National Mapping
• American Expansion
• Territorial Acquisitions of the United States
• General Land Office
• Louisiana Purchase

Geographic Coverage

United States

Abstract

Illustrations (.TIFs) from article. From the foundation of the republic, the government of the United States promoted western expansion through the surveying and sales of the public domain. The agency responsible over most of this period (General Land Office) produced maps of the progress of surveying and sales on an annual basis. The background for national mapping by this agency starts before the current Constitution, with the surveying and mapping of the seven ranges on the Ohio River. The agency submitted annual reports to Congress with a record of the progress of surveys and other activity. This article reviews a notable series from the first “connected” map in 1864 until the last in 1954. These maps evolved to include a treatment of “territorial acquisitions,” eventually as the most prominent thematic element. In an abrupt shift, the map of 1898 rejects the story that had become almost routine, that the Oregon Country was somehow a part of the Louisiana Purchase. Commissioner Binger Hermann expounded his revised understanding in a monograph of 87 pages, an unusual contribution to the understanding of a cartographic error.

Type of Resource

still image

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http://hdl.handle.net/2142/109171

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