NOAA Unveils Special Collection of Civil War Maps and Nautical Charts

[Alexandre]

NOAA Unveils Special Collection of Civil War Maps and Nautical Charts

October 7, 2010



In honor of the 150th anniversary of the Civil War in 2011, NOAA has
assembled a special historical collection of maps, charts, and documents
prepared by the U.S. Coast Survey during the war years. The collection,
“Charting a More Perfect Union,” contains over 400 documents, available free
from NOAA’s Office of Coast Survey website.
“People are planning now for their visits to Civil War sites next year, and
we want to give them an opportunity to visualize the terrain, ports, and
coasts as they were from 1861 to 1865,” said Meredith Westington, NOAA’s
chief geographer. “Most people wouldn’t think of turning to NOAA for
historical Civil War documents, but the agency has an amazing legacy.”

U.S. Coast Survey cartographers traveled with Union forces to produce
battlefield maps during the Civil War (Map of the Battlefield of
Chickamauga).
High resolution (Credit: NOAA)
Coast Survey’s collection includes 394 Civil War-era maps, including
nautical charts used for naval campaigns, and maps of troop movements and
battlefields. Rarely seen publications include Notes on the Coast, prepared
by Coast Survey to help Union forces plan naval blockades against the
Confederacy, and the annual report summaries by Superintendent Bache as he
detailed the trials and tribulations of producing the maps and charts needed
to meet growing military demands.
In the nation's early years, the United States lost more ships to accidents
than to war. In 1807, President Thomas Jefferson established the Survey of
the Coast to produce the nautical charts necessary for maritime safety,
defense and the establishment of national boundaries. By 1861, Coast Survey
was the government’s leading scientific agency, charting coastlines and
determining land elevations for the nation. Today, the Office of Coast
Survey still meets its maritime responsibilities as a part of NOAA,
surveying America’s coasts and producing the nation’s nautical charts.
In his annual report on Dec. 15, 1861, Coast Survey Superintendent Alexander
Bache wrote, “it has been judged expedient during the past year to suspend
usual foreign distribution” of reports on the progress of maps and charts.
Distribution of maps, charts, and sketches almost tripled in the 1861 “due
to the demands of the War and Navy Departments.” However, because the Coast
Survey could not easily ascertain the loyalties of private citizens, private
distribution of maps was severely restricted among “applicants who were not
well known having been referred to the representative of the congressional
district from which the application had been mailed.”
The Civil War special collection is accessible through a searchable database
at http://www.nauticalcharts.noaa.gov/history/CivilWar.
NOAA’s mission is to understand and predict changes in the Earth's
environment, from the depths of the ocean to the surface of the sun, and to
conserve and manage our coastal and marine resources. Find us online or on
Facebook.
This project was supported by the NOAA Preserve America Initiative, part of
Preserve America, a federal initiative aimed at preserving, protecting and
promoting our nation's rich heritage.

[cjprice]

Thank You very much Sir! This is a Great Resource!!! I love old maps.

~Chris
Cape Coral, FL

[Alexandre]

I bet they did this with taxpayer's money...

[VOC]

I bet they did this with taxpayer's money...

And about time too, these documents should have been on easy public access years ago.

Most government institutions and museums forget that all what they hold is "public property", and the difficulty you have getting access to some of this material due to their custodians treating it as their own personal property often beggars belief.

As for the funding of our current knowledge of the worlds "Underwater Cultural Heritage" to date it is probably something like amateurs and the private sector 90% and the public sector (financed by the amateur and private sector through taxation) 10%, so the tax paid boys have some catching up to do if they can ever get there selves together to research, locate, record, excavate, conserve, publish and display there own projects rather than continually jumping on the back of others.

[Bum Luck]

I bet they did this with taxpayer's money...

And about time too, these documents should have been on easy public access years ago.

Most government institutions and museums forget that all what they hold is "public property", and the difficulty you have getting access to some of this material due to their custodians treating it as their own personal property often beggars belief.

As for the funding of our current knowledge of the worlds "Underwater Cultural Heritage" to date it is probably something like amateurs and the private sector 90% and the public sector (financed by the amateur and private sector through taxation) 10%, so the tax paid boys have some catching up to do if they can ever get there selves together to research, locate, record, excavate, conserve, publish and display there own projects rather than continually jumping on the back of others.

Got that right! Nobody's greedier than a bureaucrat. That's because they never had to work for or risk anything besides a trip to the coffee pot, not to mention that we pay their salaries and benefits and pensions. Entitlement is a spreading sickness.

This has been one of my secret stashes of charts, but (not being a bureaucrat) I'm happy that it's out for all of us to enjoy!

[FISHEYE]

Oops! This link appears broken.
DNS error occurred. Server cannot be found.

Your Tax Dollars at work!
Gov slackers cant even keep the website up to date.

[diveguide]

Working Now. Very impressed with info, searchable locations and the zoom in feature.

Very cool

Thanks for Info.

Diveguide