Maps and atlases.

Some work has already been done toward the preparation of a manual of law and literature of Mexico, and it is hoped that this may be ready for publication before the end of the year 1925-26.

DIVISION OF MAPS

(From the report of the chief, Col. Lawrence Martin)

The outstanding activities of the division of maps during the fiscal year 1924-25 have included the following: (a) an attempt to demonstrate that the cartographic collections of the Library of Congress can be more useful to the Members of the Senate and of the House of Representatives in connection with current legislation; (b) a similar attempt to perform useful services for the executive and judicial branches of the Government; (c) the exhibition of maps pertinent to geographical problems of the present day. Map exhibits seem to afford some promise that the visiting public may desire to become familiar with and make more use of the maps and atlases in the division, as well as of the Library's collection of current geographical publications, which are, at present, read almost exclusively by the staff of the division of

maps.

The maps, and the staff of the division of maps, were utilized during the Sixty-eighth Congress, second session, and the special session of the Senate of the Sixty-ninth Congress, in connection with verbal testimony, the supplying of maps, etc., with respect to such legislative matters as the ratification of the Isle of Pines treaty, the discussion of the deportation act of 1925, of the bill to change the name of Mount Rainier to "Mount Tacoma," and of the bill to provide for designating the route of the Old Oregon Trail. In collaboration with the division of bibliography and with the legislative reference service of the Library of Congress, the division of maps can and should be of service, either directly to the committees of Congress, or, indirectly, through the office of the legislative counsel of the Senate and of the House of Representatives.

During the fiscal year the division answered approximately 2,000 letters from correspondents in all parts of the United States regarding geographical and cartographic problems. About 300 maps were photostatted or photographed for use by Congress, various Government bureaus, the collections of other libraries, authors of books and articles, litigants in the courts, etc. Approximately 450 maps were loaned to Government bureaus for use in the compilation of new maps. An estimate of the number of maps actually loaned to Government bureaus looks small. In many cases some one comes from the department and we get for him a large number of maps, which he studies, sending later for only two or three which he has selected. To state that we sent out 450 maps takes no account of the time and effort we spend in supplying the department employee with a large number of maps pertinent to the inquiry. The Geological Survey, Coast and Geodetic Survey, and Department of Agriculture were among the heaviest borrowers of maps and atlases during the last fiscal year.

The chief of the division served as (a) a member of the United States Geographic Board and chairman of its executive committee, (b) geographical assistant of the United States agent in connection with the Palmas Island arbitration, (c) representative of the Secretary of State on the Interdepartmental national origins quota board (under sec. 11 of the immigration act of 1924), (d) representative of the Library of Congress at the United States Navy's Conference on Oceanography, (e) member of the division of geology and geography of the National Research Council, and of its committee on cooperation with the Bureau of the Census, (f) lecturer in the foreign service school of the Department of State, (g) and as a geographical consultant in connection with current problems of the Departments of State, of Labor, of Justice, the Coast Guard, the Geological Survey, the Interstate Commerce Commission, the Tariff Commission, the Bureau of Public Roads, the International Boundary survey, etc.

By virtue of law a number of executive departments have made extensive transfers of maps and atlases to

the Library of Congress during the past fiscal year. The Department of State, the War Department, and the Office of Indian Affairs and Geological Survey in the Department of the Interior have made substantial transfers of noteworthy maps no longer needed in their current work.

Exchanges of duplicate map material with State institutions and with private libraries and individuals appear to have been mutually profitable.

One more justification of the Library's decision to acquire facsimiles of manuscript maps of America is shown by the following case. In 1909-10 an exact colored manuscript copy was made in France for the Library of Congress of Franquelin's "Carte de l'Amerique Septentrionale." The original was compiled and executed in Quebec in 1688. It was never published. The only copy is in the Archives du Dépôt des Cartes de la Marine, in Paris. Parkman called this map the most accurate and complete map of the period.

In July, 1924, photostat copies of this map were requested by the attorney general's office of the State of Wisconsin for use in the Wisconsin-Michigan boundary case in the Supreme Court of the United States.

It is hoped that in years to come money may be available for the reproduction not only of photostats or photographs but also of occasional colored facsimiles of cartographic manuscripts of Americana from the Spanish, Russian, Portuguese, Norwegian, British, French, Dutch, and other European archives.

Throughout the first three months of the fiscal year the division was efficiently administered by the assistant in charge, Miss Mary D. Wightman. During this year three new employees, half the staff of the division of maps, were previously unacquainted not only with the division of maps but with the internal work of a library.

Table A, below, gives the number of cartographic accessions for the last two fiscal years and denotes the manner in which they were acquired. Table B indicates the approximate number of printed maps, manuscript maps, views, atlases, and books and pamphlets in the division of maps.

TABLE A.-Sources of accessions, July 1, 1924, to June 30, 1925, MAPS AND compared with those of the previous fiscal year

ATLASES:
Accessions.

1 Including insurance maps, not listed in this table in previous years.

'Including British ordnance survey maps, not listed in this table in previous years,

and heretofore accounted for as gifts rather than as exchanges.

104

161

15, 984 26, 146

TABLE B.—Approximate number of printed maps, manuscript maps, views, and atlases in the Library of Congress (other than (a) maps in books, and (b) views in the division of prints) together with books and pamphlets in the division of maps

Grand total of contents of division of maps, 951,490 items.

Following is a list of some of the more important maps acquired during the year:

MAPS AND [Lewis and Clark map. Scale 1:1,630,000] 281⁄2 x 3734 inches.

ATLASES:

Noteworthy accessions.

[1795-6?] Manuscript.

Manuscript map thought to have been used by Lewis and Clark in their expedition up the Missouri from St. Charles to the Mandan villages. This map, without author, title, or date bears the following inscriptions on the back: "For Capt" William Clark or Capt Meriwether Lewis on their voyage up the

a

Mississippi," and "Mr Peter Tabeau at the Ricaries." It is believed to have been made by John Evans, a Welshman in the employ of the Missouri Company, and to be the map which Thomas Jefferson sent to Meriwether Lewis on January 13, 1804. This map was described and reproduced by Dr. Annie H. Abel in her article, "A New Lewis and Clark Map," in "The Geographical Review," Vol. 1, 1916, pp. 329–345. It was found in the files of the Office of Indian Affairs, Department of the Interior, with the twelve maps noted below, all supposed to have belonged to Clark, and relating to regions of his official activities as Superintendent of Indian Affairs.