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A striking juxtaposition of two important frontiers, this sheet from Petermann’s Geographische Mitteilungen presents newly compiled cartographic intelligence from the American interior and the Arctic coast. Both maps were compiled by August Petermann and lithographed by C. Hellfarth in Gotha, issued as plates 2 and 3 of the 1859 volume.
The upper map, Karte der Quellgebiete der Flüsse Witchita, Brazos, Colorado &c im Innern von Nord-Amerika, is based on the 1854 survey by Captain Randolph B. Marcy and charts the Llano Estacado and the headwaters of the Red, Brazos, and Colorado Rivers. The red tracing of Marcy’s route shows his journey from Fort Belknap westward to the Double Mountains Fork and back across the Salt Plain and southern edge of the Comanche hunting range. It includes key features such as Fort Chadbourne, Phantom Hill, and the short-lived Comanche and Caddo reservations. Marcy’s path is superimposed over terrain labeled with elevations, saline flats, and water sources. The map represents the first detailed European rendering of this remote and contested stretch of northern Texas based directly on systematic field observation.
The lower map, Karte des Nordwestlichsten Theils von Nord-Amerika, distills the full arc of the Arctic coastline from Bering Strait to the Mackenzie delta. It draws on the cumulative results of Franklin search expeditions and Russian hydrographic surveys and includes major expedition routes, harbor soundings, and annotations of Inuit settlements. The western half still carries the label “Russisches Amerika” reflecting the Russian ownership of Alaska prior to its sale to the United States in 1867. Named features include Simpson’s Strait, Point Barrow, and the Mackenzie River, as well as mountain ranges derived from Richardson, Dease, and Rae. The chart captures the known geography of the polar coast at the close of the heroic age of Arctic exploration.
August Heinrich Petermann (1822-1878) is a renowned German cartographer of the nineteenth century. Petermann studied cartography at the Geographical Art-School in Potsdam before traveling to Edinburgh to work with Dr. A. Keith Johnston on an English edition of Berghaus’ Physical Atlas. Two years later he moved to London, where he made maps and advised exploratory expeditions as they set off to explore the interior of Africa and the Arctic.
In 1854, Petermann returned to Germany to be Director of the Geographical Institute of Justus Perthes in Gotha. There, he was the editor of the Geographische Mittheilungen and Stieler’s Handatlas. The Royal Geographical Society of London awarded him their Gold Medal in 1860. He continued his interest in exploration in Germany, fundraising for the German Exploring Expeditions of 1868 and 1869-70, which sought an open Arctic sea. Tragically, he committed suicide in 1878.
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