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Description

The First Map of the Philippines Based on a Comprehensive Trigonometrical Survey

Massive wall map of the Philippines produced by the Philippine Bureau of the Coast and Geodetic Survey, shortly before the invasion by Japan in December of 1941.

The Coast and Geodetic Survey had undertaken the colossal task of comprehensively surveying the Philippines beginning in the period after the Spanish-American War. For 40 years as many as five boats of the C&GS plied the waters of the Philippine Islands setting astronomical longitude and latitude measurements, initial azimuthal, and baselines for local geodetic networks on remote islands. Across hundreds of islands, this process was repeated by the C&GS until the smaller grids of triangles could be brought together in one large comprehensive network, which became the basis for the present map.

Contemporary charts of the progress of the triangulation survey show that it was largely--though not completely--completed by 1941 when catastrophe struck. On December 7th, 1941, Imperial Japanese forces invaded the Philippines. What had previously been a dream assignment for members of the C&GS turned into a nightmare; the head of the Philippine Bureau at the time, Commander George Cowie, died in the Japanese bombing of Manila on the 24th of December when a bomb struck the C&GS printing plant. When Manila and the rest of the Philippines ultimately fell, C&GS officers and their families became prisoners of war.

The C&GS had moved chart production to Manila in 1920, where the first edition of this chart was printed in 1941. but due to the war, production had to be moved back to Washington, D.C. That move is alluded to in the lower corner of this map, which reads "Special Printing at Wash. D.C. (reprint 43 10/14) 47 9/2". Presumably, this means that the map was reprinted in 1943 and then again in 1947, just after the Philippines had gained its independence from the United States.

The map is the result of an impressive effort not just of surveying but of compilation, bringing together data from the U.S. Coast and Geodetic Survey, U.S. Army Engineers, Bureau of Public Works, Bureau of Lands, Bureau of Forestry and other Philippine Government Bureaus, provincial and municipal officials, and the 1939 Philippine Census.

The map differentiates between chartered cities, capitals of provinces, municipalities or municipal districts, and barrios and sitios. Provincial and sub-provincial boundaries are shown. Roads of various classes and states of completion are all differentiated as well

The C&GS work in the Philippines was recommenced in 1950.

Condition Description
Original wooden dowels, linen backing, and varnish. There is one primary spot of cracking in the image (though still small) near the "N" in "China Sea". Small chips and dampstain at the edges. Good to Very Good for its format.