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Description

One of the earliest obtainable large format charts of Charleston Harbor and the most detailed and accurate chart of the harbor to date.

The Chart shows the entrance to the harbor from offshore. Locates Folly Island, Light House Inlet, Sullivan's Island, James Island, Hog Island, with Charleston depicted between the Ashley & Cooper Rivers. The Chart depicts a street block plan of Charleston with wharves and commercial buildings. At base of chart are two long horizontal landfall approach view of 1.) View of the Main Ship Channel and 2.) View of North Channel with Fort Sumter. The chart includes very detailed sailing directions for mariners entering the harbor, plus notes on buoys and beacons, tides, currents and soundings. The present example is on thick paper and bears the stamp of the Coast & Geodetic Survey Office, April 22, 1885, Engraving Division.

Condition Description
A bit of minor discoloration along the folds, but generally a nice example of this scarce large format map.
United States Coast Survey Biography

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.