The Rock Island Argus and daily union. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1920-1923, 1922-07-25
Frederick Haskin's Letter
THE GOVERNMENT MAP COLLECTION

country - one allowing the nAmM
proposed BY Jefferson for -
states In lisa. What Is now -
Aorth central and northvesken
part Of the United States was -
ginning to open mp, and Jefierses
proposed an ordinance to parcel 4
of and name It. He suggested 4
his ordinance such names % 81
vania. Assenisippis. Polypotamia s
Chefronesus, Metropotamia, NlchE
gania, Saratoga. Felisipia, Illinoln
and Warrington. Most Of thepe
names were never taken seriously
One critic said Of them, Such i
mixture Of Greek. Latin, EngiiA
and Indian perhaps was never So
before" But the next year a puh.
Usher printed a tiny pocket alma.
mac containing = picture Of the ma
~ Jefferson wanted 1t.
Dlvislen saves Billions.
Showing the public its sntertain-
ing exhibits 10 not, of course. thu
main function Of the map division !.
Mr.. Phillips has in his charge ops
Of the largest collections OF man
In the world, and the material q
put to important uses. He says thas
his division has saved the epVwn.
ment billions of dollars.
When the United States was bar.
gaining for Alaska, the BOUNDARY
line was in dispute, and maps from
the library Of congress showed the
original line to which the Russian
territory extended.
Another time, Mississippi and
Louisiana had a controversy os9
An island in the Gulf Of Mexico Il
was an Insignificant island that no
state would have thought Of argu-
ing over until 1t became known q
a fine place to catch terrapiu. Il.
brary of congress maps we're sAnt
/ to show old established boua.
diaries.
| Lately Newfoundland and Canada
have been disagreeing over their
boundary line and men were sent
down to Washington to study the
map material Of the finest coilectioa
in the western world. These are
few random instances, showing the
use to which the government maps
are put.
Maps are sent ont OF the building
only for government use. The pub
lie can consult the material in the
library. People out Of the city Oft
en- use the map division, however.
As . source of Information. They
write to ask the status OF Danzis;
how to pronounce Baluchistan; and
where to find Rusinia On the map
There Is more interest in maps now
than there has been for some time.
and tho division is kept busy. MAJ
Of Siberia and Russia, which were
rarely consulted before the war, an
now called for frequently.
The United States collection may
be somewhat smaller than those q
several European governments, but
our map division dates back only
to 1897. In % years Mr.. Phillips
has made it the most perfectly o.
iganized map collection in the world.
He had been in the library Of con-
gress when it was in the capitol
| building and he took charge Of the
new division from the beginning
He has catalogued it, written VOL
umes Of descriptive indexes for
reference use, designed a conyen-
lent method Of keeping pamphlets
for ready reference. and a cheap
method OF hanging maps from .
rack on manila paper instead Of
charging the government for expen-
sive mounts.
Exactly how many maps the col
lection contains is unknown. Mau
maps are made up of a number q
separate sheets. One set alone, The
Sanborn maps OF 10000 cities and
Towns in the United States, contains
10000 sheets. And this series u
only one item in the government
collection.
There are 5000 aliases. dating
from 1856 to tho present. 1t took
four thick volumes to describe and
index these ALIASES. 1t took an
other volume to list the maps ap-
plicable to the World war This
was printed in 1918. II j, were
brought up TO date II would prob
ably be several times as thick. New
war maps and revised maps ~
Europe are being printed every cay.
The world doesn't change mich.
but there is always something new
in maps.