Show sto toy ry omans M A PS let V ki rr C I 1 JAPAN oil lk P 4 1 el e L q V F e alls LE 4 A nl 46 ch OOL 4 J ida 1 BEA 7 sixteenth century map of the pacific prepared by national wahington D 0 ervle erv lc 71 8 ORE OKE than years aso ago M I 1 V i rameses IL II 11 who Is credited with making the first maps outlined estates along the nile river what would he think today if he walked into an automobile service station railway station tourist bureau or airplane office and could take his pick of maps that would show him the best route to almost anywhere in the world probably the greatest spurt in the map making industry has been made in the last few centuries but in the great museums ot of the world worl d there are many maps and charts that were crude but helpful forerunners of the efficient work ot of cartographers today most famous of all early maps are those of the atlas or geography of claudius ptolemy an eight volume work dating from about A D though lost to the world of learning through the dark ages ptole mys books were later rediscovered one of the oldest manuscript copies was found at mount athos and a reproduction made in 1807 Is on display in the library of congress at washington D a six of his eight books consists of tablets of latitude and longitude for about places in his remaining books ptolemy discusses the stars mathematical problems of geography the length of days the suns course and differences in time at different places with his books are maps of 26 countries and one map of the world in his colossal task ptolemy used all geographic lore that had accumulated to his big time though crude and full of mistakes it was the greatest step ever made in presenting world geography in scientific form nis ills maps show how bow traders and adventurers had pushed the rim of the known world as far north as the Shet lands and given size and shape to the british I 1 isles more of the nile was shown and part of africa below the equator the indian ocean got a new and more accurate mapping based no doubt on notes brought by silk traders from the far east road maps for crusaders crusader to meet the needs of the crusaders flocking down the highways of europe and into asia minor there developed a sort of pictorial road map A good example in the british museum Is a copy of a drawing by a st albans monk matthew paris its crude pictures show the towns tons along the route from london to jerusalem the map of palestine also shows the sea with ships carrying crowds of people china persia egypt all had bad their part in early map science and the arabs undoubtedly borrowed from ptolemy yet it was the th arabs who when christian learning lagged in the eighth and ninth centuries made the most im portent geographic advances printing which like the compass probably came to europe from the east bast had bad the same galvanic effect on map making as on other arts forts ptolemy Ptole mya geography now dow translated became so popular that it was to go through more than fifty editions columbus columbua used it despite its errors or thanks to them he accidentally found the new world which discovery ultimately set all civilization to revising its maps for decades after the voyages of columbus europe seethed Ltee thed with excitement and new ideas when charles V received letters from cortez describing the splendors of Monte court vath its golden dishes as big as carriage wheels all spain was agitated when news broke that pizarro had caught an inca king and held him for or ransom of a roomful of gold equal to excitement was almost unendurable all nations that could build or borrow boats put to sea and map milking making flourished As the file worlds true pattern took form medieval naps maps with anex elored areas decorated by sea serpents mermaids wrecked galleons gal leons and chubby ad el faces blowing the winds began to fade from use Merca tors toes great work gerhard kremer known by his bis Latini zed name of mercator was among the first to break with these old traditions famous mathematician and cartographer of flanders he be drew a world chart la in 1569 ort the mercator projection which gave navigators a new and safer system for plotting their courses by this projection lines of latitude and longitude are mathematically spaced and drawn at right angles to each other on this grid sailors have merely to rule a straight line as their course and sail to port because the earth Is round this does not give the shortest route between two points but it does show the right bearing in his time mercator helped to change map making from an art into a science new and accurate instruments for measuring the ground were coming into use and slowly they led the way to topographic po surveys Merca tors son rumold Itu mold carried on hla his fathers map trade when rumold died his brother in law ju bocus hondalus Hond lus took it over tb aba earth map of 1593 1555 now la in the british museum traces sir francis drakes course around the world dutch map publishers led the world in the seventeenth century and the french la in the eighteenth A french scientist rolled a carriage wheel across the northern french plains to measure a degree arc of the meridian in time came dan life issuing a new nap map of 0 chiv china drawn by the jesuits in 1718 other map makers arose in germany england austria and switzerland no country Is so well surveyed as great britain no maps anywhere are comparable for information and r range ange of scale with those of its ordnance survey early american maps before the revolution uch such maps of our country as existed were drawn mostly by those european powers who had bad colonies here among such were the early spanish maps of florida the southwest and california also lewis evans map of the middle british colonies la in america published lo in philadelphia in 1755 what has bag been called the most important map in united states history Is that drawn by dr john mitchell Ml showing the french and british dominions in north america after cornwallis yielded at yorktown town and british diplomats met the Amer americana aserleans leans at paris to frame the treaties of 1782 83 this map was used of it john adams wrote we had before us a variety ot of maps but it was the mitchell Ml map upon which was marked out the Dou noary unes 01 the me united states during uie the first half of the sixteenth century such spanish explorers e rs as cabeza de vaca coronado de soto and others had made crude maps of their routes so had the french voyaging the great lakes and canoeing down the mississippi william clark of the lewis and dark clark expedition in 1801 6 made a map showing their route to oregon and the north boundary of louisiana then in the upper mississippi basin later came zebulon pike the santa fe traders trade Ts and the beaver trappers from st louis bonneville walker fremont and others au all shown on frank bonds routes of the principal explorers published by the united states land of flee fice in 1907 after the civil ar mapping of 0 the united states particularly of the great west began in earnest carne gt directed by the newly creat created ed united states geological survey long before that to aid settlers the government land office had done much mapping often under contract von vou tract and not always accurate |