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The first scientifically executed chart of the entrance to the St. Johns River, Florida, this map produced at a time when safe access to the port of Jacksonville was a matter of national economic and military importance.
This Coast Survey chart traces the twisting channel of the St. Johns River from its ocean bar to Brown’s Creek, delineating every shoal, buoy, and rise with precision. Dense soundings in feet appear throughout, complemented by sailing directions, a current diagram, and an unusually detailed tide table for both the Pilot Village and Fort George Inlet. Bottom compositions are noted, including sand, shells, clay, and mud, with hardness, fineness, and color indicated by letter codes. The landform rendering, accomplished in Harrison and Bache’s topographic fieldwork, captures the wooded ridges, hammock zones, and tidal marshes flanking the river.
Hydrography was executed in 1853 and 1855 under the command of Lieutenants Thomas A. Craven and Richard Wainwright, both of whom would later serve with distinction in the Civil War. The work was carried out during the superintendency of Alexander Dallas Bache, whose tenure brought new scientific rigor to the U.S. Coast Survey. The chart includes a printed note warning of the dynamic and shifting character of the outer bar: “The shifting nature of the sand on this Bar causes frequent and material changes in the channel.” A resurvey was already underway.
Issued during Florida’s first decade of statehood, this chart represents the earliest systematic hydrographic study of Jacksonville’s primary maritime approach. The St. Johns was critical for the movement of cotton, timber, and naval stores, and the survey laid the foundation for the channel improvements and defenses that would follow in the decades ahead.
Lithographed by Julius Bien in New York, this is an early example of Bien’s transfer work for the U.S. Coast Survey, preserving the delicate linework and fine stipple textures of the original engraving. As a “preliminary chart,” it was produced in limited numbers and quickly superseded by updated editions.
The United States Office of the Coast Survey began in 1807, when Thomas Jefferson founded the Survey of the Coast. However, the fledgling office was plagued by the War of 1812 and disagreements over whether it should be civilian or military controlled. The entity was re-founded in 1832 with Ferdinand Rudolph Hassler as its superintendent. Although a civilian agency, many military officers served the office; army officers tended to perform the topographic surveys, while naval officers conducted the hydrographic work.
The Survey’s history was greatly affected by larger events in American history. During the Civil War, while the agency was led by Alexander Dallas Bache (Benjamin Franklin’s grandson), the Survey provided the Union army with charts. Survey personnel accompanied blockading squadrons in the field, making new charts in the process.
After the Civil War, as the country was settled, the Coast Survey sent parties to make new maps, employing scientists and naturalists like John Muir and Louis Agassiz in the process. By 1926, the Survey expanded their purview further to include aeronautical charts. During the Great Depression, the Coast Survey employed over 10,000 people and in the Second World War the office oversaw the production of 100 million maps for the Allies. Since 1970, the Coastal and Geodetic Survey has formed part of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and it is still producing navigational products and services today.
![[Original photograph album of Carlstrom Field, Florida, early Army Air Service Training Camp]](https://storage.googleapis.com/raremaps/img/small/84163.jpg)
