The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1900-04-09
IN SEARCH OF OLD MAPS.
THE GOVERNMENT PAYS GOOD
PRICES FOR RARE COPIES.

The Maps Are Wanted for the Col
lection in the Congregational LIZ
brary Mt WashfnRton-Mr. Phillips,
who Has Charge of the Map d.
vision of the Library, Now In sa-
vannnh-The Maps Are Desired for
Historical Purposes Well as for
RecOrd-The Government has co.
GOO Maps Now, But Is on the Look
out for More.
Headers of the Morning News who have
old maps, ancient manuscripts or rare
old volumes of any kind which they do
not desire to keep. may find it to their
advantage to communicate with the libra
rian of the Congressional Library at wash
ington In regard to maps, especially.
they may communicate direct with Mr..
p. Lee Phillips, who has charge of the
map division Of the library.
Mr.. Phillips is noM in the city, visiting
4 his sister, Mrs. Fred Myers, on Hail
street. He is recuperating from a severe
attack of the grip. which accounts for his
presence in Savannah at this time. 1t
occurred to Mr.. Phillips that as Savan-
/ nah is an old city with number of old
! citizens whose fathers and grandfathers
also lived here, that there are many who
! have old relics and papers in the shape
| OF maps and manuscripts to which perhaps
/ they have attached but little value. bur
! which might be found TO be desirable ac-
| QUESTIONS to the public library. The gov
| eminent pays very fair prices for articles
of this kind
When seen yesterday by a Morning
News reporter, Mr.. Phillips gave some
| interesting information concerning the
| library and his particular department of
| II. The library numbers 100000 Volumes
! including practically everything ever pub
! iished in America, or about America by
! foreign publishers as well as a large gen.
! eral collection of foreign works. Despite
its large collection, however, the library
only ranks eighth or ninth among the
great libraries of the world Still with
the great progress which has been made
| in recent years ID may hope some day
to rival the great library at Paris, or
that of the British museum at London.
My speciality is maps" said Mr.. Phil
| lips. I'm this division We have over $4,000
maps, including many which are very old
and some which are very valuable. We
have very large number of colonial maps
| as well as number of maps made
! during the decades shortly succeeding the
revolutionary war Special attention is
paid to this feature of the collection. They
are valuable to the historian in many
the early photographers and explorers had
of the country, as well as the many
changes effected in each succeeding pc
| Rod of the couutry's history. The gov
| eminent is under many obligations in this
respect to some of the early collectors
who showed conception of the value of
such things not generally appreciated IN
their time"
There We're $500 of these old maps"
said Mr.. Phillips, "stored away in the
| hooks and crannies and out-of-the-way
places of the old Congressional Library
Little care had been taken of them and
they We're not in the best of condition.
1t was my duty to take these old maps
put them in condition and arrange and
| classify them so that they might readily
| be obtained for reference when desired
| These include maps of the different
| states, beginning with colonial days The
collection of maps of Georgia is a very
| good one and there are some very old
maps in the lot"
The collection is not confined to maps
| of the various states and the United
states, but includes those of all other
countries as well, special attention being
paid to maps of other American coun-
tries. As an instance of the value which
may attach 10 an old and rare map Mr.
Phillips gave an incident of one which
played important part in the contro-
| Versy between Great Britain and Vene-
| zuela, in which this country came near
| taking a hand. Among the library col
| lection was a British lighthouse map of
| 1920, showing the lighthouses established
! by Great Britain along the coast of its
| possessions of that date in South America.
| The British government claimed 60 have
! had possession of the mouth of the ORR
| noco and that a lighthouse had been
| maintained there. This was very import
| ant as showing evidence OF possession.
| In looking up the maps bearing upon the
! IL II
! lighthouse map but IL showed no light
| house az the mouth of the Ornoco
Mr.. Phillips brought the map to the at
tention of Mr. Andrade, the Venezuelan
minister at Washington, who at once rec
ognized its value. A photograph of the
map was taken and was submitted as
| evidence before the commission, which
| passed unon the claims of the two coun-
! tries. The award of the commission was
more favorable to Great Britain than to
| Venezuela, but it denied Great Britan's
claim 10 the ownership of the mouth OF
! the Orincco. Minister Andrade considered
| the evidence furnished in this manner
! by Mr.. Phillips so valuable to the Vene-
zuelan cause that he obtained for him
| from his government the decoration of
| the order of Bolivar, the only order of
| merit which exists in Venezuela.
| "Pe7ple generally do not attach much
| value to maps" said Mr.. Phillips They
| throw away their old maps as soon as
| they obtain new ones on the theory that
| the later the map the more accurate it
| is. ance it happens that of a map of
| which thousand or more copies may
| have been made, there may be only a
single copy in existence, and this copy
may have an historical value unappre-
| ciated by the person in whose possession
! it happens to be. Manuscript maps are
valuable not only as records but because
of the notes made by the makers show
| ing the extent of their information upon
| the country or section outlined. We have
| some old maps of this country made in
! Europe in the siXieenth century with
! strange figures and descriptions of the
people and the animals viii h were sup
| posed to nhabt the country"
Mr. Phillips will be in Savannah sew
eral days, and viii go from here to
I Charleston, which city he thinks should
also prove a good field in his Inc of re-
| search.
THE NVARMEsT Day YET.