Every evening, Wilmington daily commercial., 1922-07-26
THE GOVERNMENT MAP COLLECTION

Washington. July &c $50 many
people come to my door and read the
sign Maps and Chars and turn away.
=. l.. Phillips, chief Of the map DIVISION
Of the Library Of Congress made Tins
remark. and he made Il rather sadly.
There il as much Of the picturesque m
Mr.. Phillips division rs In amy part oil
The great library. But the public thinks
OF n map M n dull, abstract outline OF Q
country, So. more often than not, visi-
tors rnss hy and miss seeing the map
with the picture of the one-legged ann
holding HE foot over him like an ium-
brclla.
This attractive novelty is Just inside
the door. Il il possible that ii her were
outside, below the sign Maps and
Charts" the one-legged gentleman
might stimulate the public imnglnatloi,,
and Mr.. Phillips would he swarnped
with visitors. But slde-show advertising
il beneath governmental dignity mf.
Phillips has perhaps gone as iar rs tLis
dignity permits when he placed swing
ing rack Of quaint old sixteenth century
maps just inside his door.
The one-legeed gentleman IS ~ THIS
collection Of valuable old vellurnfharts
Ueis sitting blissfully in the shade Of m,
huge foot in Ethiopia, region ABOUT
{ which very little was known when th'
may was drawn. In another OF thes'
mans man with neck like came
U is set down somewhere in northern
Europe.
r These freak humans we're not pu
= there in any spirit Of levity. The maj
y makers az the sixteenth century DC
; pended on explorers aud travellers Tor III
= formation about distant countries rus
as man makers do today. Sometime
they were deceived. Travellers oxae
E perated or reported weird traditions q
V facts Sir John Mandeville, famou
traveller of tho fourteenth century,
= responsible for the one-Icgeed maj
, Mr.. Phillips points ont that Mandf
ville's book Of travels contains the sam
V picture that the map maker used coup
Of centuries later. Vaudeville added
" description to his picture, written IN IN
y quaint old English Of his time:
Il Quaint Old English.
III "In Ethiope ben many DIVERSE fob
and Ethiope is clept Called Cusis.
10 that Contres ben folk That han but
~ foot. and thei gon so fast that IT is
- msrvaylle. and the foot is so large thf
" il eehadewethe ale the Body azen II
=, Some. whanne their wole I've and RESI-
~ hem"
~ The man with the long, curved ne'
W. is another connection Of some explore
He adorns u 1850 sailing chart Of q
nv 4 l. ..s..~lA Thu
makers Of that time often decorated the
al work with pictures of this sort, shown
v" the natural exhibits and lnterestiI
= features Of the different countries IT
20 chart shows IN excellently drawn q
NJ phant, camel deer, unicorn and 9th
49, animals in Africa, for instance, and
VIZ Europe the principal cities ere mark
by their coats of arms and tiny We
wv OF the city over the shield Each of the
~ views is no larger than 25-cent pie'
81, Yet the towers and battlements of ea
w. CITY are distinctive. The different cou
~ tries are marked by pictures Of the ruiz
sitting on can0pied thrones The
uarel Of the kings and the colors a
style in which they are drawn arc strong
suggestive Of the royalty on mode
deck Of playing cards. d,
This was a map Of 1859 a more coli
ful and fanciftll affair than our cure
nus maps with their dots for cities and wa
lines for mountains. Yet this map
,er scarcely considered old by cartograp
hft experts. A map made after 1850
to- comparalveIy modern. THIS is log
IN when YOU consider that the ROmi
OF made charts IN planning their roads,
egg that records Of maps 20 back sevf
nty centuries before Christ. Some OF tho m
1--we interesting maps in the Library
her Congress to Americans, at least, are
,,ed old by this standard.
M .. A rare and unique map of this coun
is one showing the names proposed
jefferson for new StGtes,i IN 1874. Wha
now the north central Iand northwest
part of the United States was bcgnr
To open up, and Jefferson proposed
'"o ordinance to prcel It off and name
,ton IL S,,,,1,,s. al y, re ordinance e,,ch ma,
as Sylvania, Assenisippia, Polypotar
Cherronesus, MetropotamIa, Mlehlga
you Saratoga, Pehsipia, IllInoia and W.
ie-- ington Most of these names were NJ
ther taken seriously. One critic said Of IN
Their Such a mixture Of Greek, la
English and Indian perhaps was NJ
seen before. But the next year q 7
the Usher printed a tiny pocket alma
3 to containing picture of the map as
hool ferson wanted It.
New Division Saves Billions.
Showing the public its entertain
exhibits il not, of course, the main Il
the ton Of the Map Division. Mr.. Phi
sked has in his charge one Of the largest
z TO lections of maps in the world, and
his material is put to important uses.
says that his division has saved
government billions Of dollars.
see When the United States was
, re- gaining for Alaska, the boundary
an" was in dispute. and maps from
ran Library Of Congress showed the orig
line 70 which the Russian territory
tended. Another time, Mississippi
mod Louisiana had a controversy over
island in the Gulf Of Mexico. II wa
,.,. insignificant island that no State w
have thought of arguing over INT
became known as a fine place to c.
terrapin. Library Of Congress n
were sent for to show old establii
es' boundaries.
Iatelv Newfoundland and CaI