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Mammoth Wall Map of the Philippines Immediately Before the Establishment of the Philippine Commonwealth. Manila Imprint.
Extremely rare wall map of the Philippine islands, lithographed and published in Manila as part of the ongoing American efforts to survey the islands.
The present map was published in 1933 by the Coast and Geodetic Survey's Manila office. The map is impressively detailed and represents the best mapping of the islands to date. Sources of information are listed, and include the C&GS, the Army Engineers, the Bureau of Public Works, the Bureau of Lands, the Bureau of Forestry, other Philippine government bureaus, and provincial and municipal officials. An extensive legend and list of abbreviations is provided.
The map shows the Philippine Islands in full. Neighboring islands not under Philippine control are outlined but not detailed. Topography, hydrography, roads, railways, and other features are shown throughout.
The Coast and Geodetic Survey in the Philippines
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 forty 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 measurements, 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, in part, the basis for the present map.
The C&GS had moved chart production to Manila in 1920. Later, due to the war, production had to be moved back to Washington, D.C. The efforts of the C&GS were halted during the Second World War and the occupation by the Japanese, and recommenced in 1950.
Rarity
We locate three institutional examples of the 1933 edition of this map, at Harvard, Cornell, and the University of Michigan.
Please note that the image of this map is composited from multiple photographs, a process which can result in odd joins and disjunctions in the image that are not reflective of the condition of the object itself.
![[Philippine Islands] Carte du Canal des Iles Philippines Par leque passe le Galion de Manille. Et les Iles voisines de ce canal / Kaart van het Kanaal in de Filippynsche Eilanden . . .](https://storage.googleapis.com/raremaps/img/small/76427.jpg)