Map of the United States Showing the Progress of the Topographic Survey during the Fiscal Year 1887-8.
1888 (dated) 18 x 28.5 in (45.72 x 72.39 cm)
This uncommon map of the United States was issued in 1888 by the U.S. Geological Survey. Depicts the Entire United States with various shaded zones indicating the progress of the Topographic Survey. Various zones show areas that have been surveyed by the Geological Survey, the scale to which they were surveyed, and the year in which they were surveyed. Also shows the parts of the United States that have been surveyed by other organizations. Concentrates almost exclusively on geological fetures, but does note state borders, American Indian reservations, and major cities. Shows Yellowstone Park, was established in 1872. The area that is now the Oklahoma panhandle is labeled 'Public Lands.'
The Office of the Coast Survey (later the U.S. Geodetic 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.
U.S. Geological survey. Ninth Annual Report, pl. 1.
Very good condition. Original folds. Blank on verso.
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Map & Geography Library, G3701.B5 1892.G3.