As a vital channel for commerce and travel, it is impossible to overstate the importance of the Mississippi River in 19th century America. As part of the river’s history, this week marks 162 years since a pivotal Union victory in the Civil War: the Battle of Fort Jackson and Fort St. Philip, and the capture of New Orleans and the lower Mississippi River. Several fascinating maps drawn at multiple scales provide us with an in-depth view of this battle and its aftermath.

The Mississippi River passes through New Orleans and meanders a further 100 miles southeast before emptying into the Gulf of Mexico. Closer to the mouth of the river in Plaquemine Parish are the sites of Fort Jackson and Fort St. Philip, established to defend New Orleans and control of the river. A closer view of John Bachmann’s 1861 Birds eye view of Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and part of Florida provides an artistic rendering of this geography.

Military defenses in this location have a long history. Before Fort St. Philip, the site was Fort San Felipe, an installation built in the 1790s by the Spanish, who administered Louisiana as a part of New Spain. Under American control following the 1803 Louisiana Purchase, the fort was expanded and would resist British bombardment during the War of 1812. In the 1820s, Fort Jackson was constructed on the directly opposite riverbank, further bolstering defenses in the area. Both forts were located along a sharp bend in the Mississippi River, which was key to their strategic value. Enemy ships needed to slow down and hug the riverbank to pass through this stretch of the river, making them highly vulnerable to attack.

After the outbreak of the Civil War brought Louisiana and its forts under Confederate control, Union military strategy would soon focus attention on controlling the lower Mississippi River via the Gulf of Mexico. Under the command of U.S. Navy flag officer David G. Farragut, reconnaissance operations began in early April 1862 to scope out the positions of Forts Jackson and St. Philips in relation to the river bend. The map below is one of several in our collection documenting the reconnaissance efforts.

After several days of reconnaissance, Union vessels began a heavy six-day bombardment of the forts. With the forts weakened but not surrendered, Farragut ordered several of his gunboats to break riverine chain defenses and prepare to pass by the forts. In the early morning of April 24th, Farragut began to lead his fleet single file through the broken barriers. The Union Navy would come under heavy fire over the course of the day, but was ultimately able to pass the forts with most of the fleet intact, while inflicting significant losses on Confederate ships. Robert Knox Sneden, a prolific cartographer for the Union Army, would illustrate the battle’s geography in his distinctive watercolor style.

With the primary defenses of New Orleans now breached, Farragut’s fleet wasted no time in continuing up the river towards the city. By the end of the following week, New Orleans, Fort Jackson and Fort St. Philip would all fully surrender to Union forces. A map of Fort Jackson produced by the U.S. Coast Survey in the battle’s aftermath provides an incredible level of detail into the damage the fort sustained, from areas burned by fire and inundated with water from broken levees, to individual holes in the fort walls created by Union mortar fire.

The Battle of Forts Jackson and St. Philip, and the subsequent capture of New Orleans, mark a key milestone in the Civil War. Union control of the mouth of the Mississippi River was a major accomplishment in Union General Winfield Scott’s “Anaconda Plan,” which sought to economically and diplomatically isolate the Confederacy from the outside world. This incredible series of maps help us to understand this important moment in the conflict at many scales, from the contours of the region to the holes of bombardment in a fort wall.

Discover More:

• Learn more about John Bachmann and his incredible “bird’s eye views” in a 2022 Worlds Revealed blog post by Meagan Snow.
• Robert Knox Sneden produced hundreds of maps of Civil War engagements. Explore his maps in our online collection, or dive deeper into the stories behind the maps in the Worlds Revealed blog.
• Our Worlds Revealed blog series Places in Civil War History explores maps produced during the conflict.
• Explore our vast collection of Civil War maps online, along with a series of essays on Civil War mapping history.

At the end of the 19th century, William Frederick Cody, more popularly known as “Buffalo Bill,” achieved global celebrity through his “Wild West Show,” which toured the United States and Europe, presenting a romanticized portrayal of the American West.  Before his touring shows, Cody was infamous for his skill hunting buffalo to feed railway workers during the construction of the Kansas Pacific Railroad. His “Wild West Show” cemented his celebrity, allowing him to perform for England’s Queen Victoria and meet the Pope. Beginning in 1892, his European tours took a decade-long hiatus, and he returned to America.

In the mid-1890s, Cody decided to financially invest in the growth of Wyoming: at the time, Wyoming was a brand-new state, having officially been admitted to the Union in 1890. Holt’s 1883 map of Wyoming (seen below) helps us understand how Wyoming was described in the decade before its official entry into statehood. Between 1868 and 1890, Wyoming was organized as Wyoming Territory, which had the same borders it would eventually have as a state.

In the northwest corner of the state is Yellowstone National Park. It had already been established as the first national park in the country in 1872, well before Wyoming achieved statehood. East of the park sits the Absaroka Range, marked on the map as “Shoshone Mountains.” If we look carefully, we can find Cedar Mountain marked on the eastern edge of those mountains. Just a little bit further east of Cedar Mountain is where Cody would go on to found his namesake town of Cody, Wyoming.

Running past Cedar Mountain toward the future site of Cody on the map is the Stinking Water River (later renamed the Shoshone River). The “Stinking Water” River is just the first of many negative-sounding places names and descriptions you see on the map describing this area: the area just north of the river, now known as the Big Horn Basin, is marked as “barren plain,” with “bad lands” to the east and “broken and open country” to the south. Even further south is the Wind River or Shoshone Indian Reservation. The founding of Cody would play out within a larger context of “reclaiming” western territory for American settlers by transforming and “civilizing” the landscape itself. Physical changes to the landscape were part of the social and cultural reclaiming of the land from a place of indigenous settlement to a space for European settlers.

In 1894, the United States Congress passed the Carey Act, which gave states the ability to sell large tracts of irrigable land to private entities, allowing them to buy land specifically for the purposes of building irrigation systems and eventually profiting from the sale of water rights. Cody’s entry into Wyoming real estate investment aligned with the passage of the Carey Act, as he partnered with investor George Beck and others to form the Shoshone Irrigation Company. Cody’s goal was to irrigate the Big Horn Basin, both creating a well-populated namesake town and securing his financial future through the sale of water rights. Cody and his business partners began construction in 1895 on the “Cody Canal,” which diverted water from the Shoshone River toward the new town of Cody, before getting official approval through the Carey Act. The project didn’t go wellconstruction costs ultimately clocked in at twice their estimated price, the physical construction of the canal was difficult, settlers to the area were fewer than expected, and Cody residents were unhappy with the quality of the water. By 1898, the company was actively trying to sell the project. The Burlington and Missouri River Railroad construction eventually connected the new town of Cody to a transportation system in 1901, allowing the settlement rate in the area to tick up, but the canal itself only irrigated a small portion of the Big Horn Basin, and not particularly well.

The passage of 1902’s Reclamation Act allowed for federal funding for large-scale irrigation projects in western states. By 1904, Cody gave up on his private investment and assigned his water rights to the federal government, and thus began the Shoshone Reclamation Project.

The Reclamation Service decided that the best function of the Shoshone River would be to build a dam west of Cody. Dam construction began in 1904 and was completed by 1910. The 1905 map below outlines the project plan at that time, with the dam located at Cedar Mountain.

In his article “Elwood Mead, Buffalo Bill Cody, & the Carey Act in Wyoming,” published in Montana: The Magazine of Western History,” Robert Bonner argues that it was Cody’s private business failure that helped establish a solid case for federal intervention in reclamation projects. Cody was left to other business ventures, including the establishment of Cody’s Irma Hotel and the continuation of his “Wild West” tours. His final European tour took place in 1906, during dam construction. Cody, Wyoming is documented in the 1907 Sanborn Fire Insurance map below, which shows the town lateral (from the Cody Canal) running at the edge of the city. The Cody Canal still exists and can be found running south of the city of Cody.

By 1910, the Shoshone Dam construction was complete: at the time of construction, it was the tallest dam in the world. Some of the soil difficulties that plagued the Cody Canal resurfaced with the dam itself, which struggled with silt-related issues. In 1946, the dam was renamed to honor Cody, and is now known as the Buffalo Bill Dam.

Sources & Further Reading:

• “Elwood Mead, Buffalo Bill Cody, & The Carey Act in Wyoming” in Montana: The Magazine of Western History, by Robert. E. Bonner. [Vol 55, Issue 1. Spring 2005.]
• “William F. Cody’s Wyoming Empire: The Buffalo Bill Nobody Knows,” by Robert E. Bonner.
• Buffalo Bill: Topics in Chronicling America

This week's post features the qibla compass pictured above. This remarkable geographical instrument was recently added to the Geography and Map Division's collections.

The qibla is the direction of the Sacred Mosque in Mecca where Muslims turn for prayer. A qibla compass, also known as a qibla indicator, is used to find the direction of the Kaaba, a stone building located in the courtyard of the Sacred Mosque.

The qibla compass featured in this post was made in Turkey during the Ottoman Empire. The year of its creation is unknown but is believed to date back to the 18^th or early 19^th century.

The lid includes a picture of the Sacred Mosque of Mecca, known as the Masjid al-Haram. An image of the Kaaba is shown in the center of the lid.

A picture of the Kaaba is also shown on the center of the base.  A mihrab is a sacred alcove in a mosque that indicates the direction of the qibla. On the base there are four images of mihrabs showing the places of prayer for the four schools of Islamic thought: the Shafi'i, Maliki, Hanbali and Hanafi.

The place names of the cities and regions throughout the Islamic world are shown on the outer rim of the base. The name Qustantina (Constantinople) is printed in red; the other place names are printed in black.

Five daily prayers are observed in Islam: the Fajr, Dhuhr, 'Asr, Maghrib, and Isha. The sundial is used to determine the time of the 'Asr prayer which is observed in the late afternoon.

This qibla compass is stored in a green circular box decorated with a floral pattern. Both the indicator and box were decorated in the Edirnekari style which has its roots in Edirne, Turkey. Artisans were taught the Edirnekari technique in workshops located in Edirne and Istanbul. Edirnekari artists often used floral patterns and green and yellow hues in their work.

Many antique scientific instruments are held in the Geography and Map Division; however, this is the first qibla indicator to be acquired for our collections. This meticulously crafted qibla compass is a valuable addition to the holdings of the Geography and Map Division.

Discover More:

• World-maps for finding the direction and distance to Mecca : innovation and tradition in Islamic science by David A. King. The author provides detailed descriptions of the antique instruments that were used for finding the qibla.
  
• Edirnekari, This online article provides information about the Edirnekari style of decoration.
• Prayer traditions in Africa, the Middle East, and Central Asia. This story map highlights a selection of prayer materials held in the African and Middle Eastern Division, Library of Congress.
• Ottoman Turkish Collections in the Library of Congress. This research guide provides a selected inventory of the Library’s Ottoman Turkish Collections.
• The Hajj to Mecca by Huda Dayton. The author of this post discusses the annual Islamic pilgrimage to Mecca in the blog 4 Corners of the World International Collections at the Library of Congress.

Join us online May 2, 2024, for a Spring Presentation with two conversations on indigenous cartography.

At 3:00pm Lauren Beck, Canada Research Chair in Intercultural Encounter and Professor of Visual and Material Culture Studies at Mount Allison University, Canada, will discuss Extractive Place Naming Practices in Early Modern North America.

At 5:00pm S. Max Edelson, Professor of History, University of Virginia, will discuss Catawba Cartographies: Remapping the Indigenous Southeast, ca. 1670-1733.

The Spring Presentation is held in support of the Geography and Map Division mission to expand engagement and increase access to resources that inspire, educate, and excite those who explore the largest collection of maps in the world. Register for the talks here.

Last summer, I attended a course at the Rare Book School entitled Material Foundations of Map History, 1450-1900. Taught by distinguished map scholar Matthew Edney, the course explored the materiality of maps in all their forms. I found the course fascinating, educational, and stimulating; since attending, I’ve been inspired to delve deeper into the physical and material aspects of maps as objects, and to improve my understanding of commonand less-commonmethods of map printing and production. Fortunately, I couldn’t ask for a better vantage point to explore the history of mapmaking than the stacks and reading room of the Geography and Map Division. In this new series, Fabricating the World, I’ll examine different methods of creating cartographic objects. The first post will look at copperplate printing, a method which produced a large portion of the Geography and Map Division collections.

According to Five centuries of map printing, edited by David Woodward, copperplate printing "became the preferred method for printing maps" in the late 16^th century. Printing with copper plates came with several advantages. Copper plates were more durable than woodblocks (which had been standard), lasted longer, and could be used to produce more copies of a given map before wear and tear on the plate rendered them unreadable. Details engraved or etched in copper could be finer than those carved into woodblocks, and the plates themselves could be larger. The trade-off of this new method was that copper plates couldn’t be easily used as illustrations in books, as the letterpress printing used for text required the image to be raised above the plate surface, rather than incised into the plate. As a result, maps were sometimes printed separately and bound into books as fold-outs; an example of this can be seen in the top image in our previous blog post Reading between the Gridlines. By the late 19th century, copperplate printing was largely eclipsed by lithography, an even more durable and flexible printing method.

The Geography and Map Division holds several examples of copperplates used for map printing. Most of them are large, heavy, and very shiny, making them hard to photograph. Along with other objects in our collection, such as woodblocks and cerographic plates, they help document the history of mapmaking and printing.

How does copperplate printing work? The first step is to engrave (or less commonly, etch) a thin sheet of copper. Copperplate printing is a type of intaglio, where the image is incised into the plate; this differs from relief printing, where the area around the image is cut away. Metal tools were used to carve lines into the copper to produce everything from coastlines to trees to textual labels. Engravers were highly skilled. This example from G&M’s collections, with pencil point for scale, shows how finely detailed engraved copper plates could be.

In order to produce a readable, accurate image, everything had to be inscribed in reverse, as a mirror-image. In some cases, metal punches could be used for repeated symbols, such as the circles indicating towns.

Once the copper plate was prepared, ink was applied, and had to be pressed into each tiny groove. Excess ink was then wiped off, leaving the plate surface clean but the grooves still filled with ink. A sheet of paper was then placed on top of the plate and the whole thing was put through a rolling press. The rolling press pushed the paper into the inked grooves in the plate, transferring the ink to the paper. This process resulted in a plate mark around the edge of the image, which can clearly be seen in this example:

This process is repeated for each impression. Subtle differences in the ink application, and wear on the plate over time, could cause lines to appear darker or lighter in different impressions of the same map. Sometimes changes were made to the copper plate between impressions, creating different states of a given map.

Copperplate printing doesn’t allow for large blocks of color, so color was typically added by hand, if at all. We have digitized three versions of this map, each of which was hand-colored in different color combinations, possibly by different people at different times (see copy 2 and copy 3 on our website).

This small copper plate was used to produce a map and view of Anacapa Island in the Santa Barbara Channel, California. A close inspection of the plate reveals the names of the engravers in the lower left corner: J. A. Whistler, J. Young, and C. A. Knight, all employees of the U.S. Coast Survey.

J. A. Whistler is none other than American painter James Abbott McNeill Whistler, who painted the famous Arrangement in Grey and Black No. 1, generally known as Whistler’s Mother.

Learn more:

The Geography and Map Reading Room Reference Collection contains many books about the history of maps and map printing; a few are listed here:

• Five centuries of map printing, 1975, by David Woodward
• The History of cartography series, 1987-, edited by J.B. Harley and David Woodward

The Rare Book and Special Collections Division has several research guides related to the history of printing, including these:

• England and the Printing Press: A Subject Guide
• New Jersey: History of Printing and Publishing

Ahupua’a are types of land divisions from ancient Hawai’i that typically ran from the mountains (mauka) towards the sea (makai) containing a cross section of island resources needed to support a community led by an ali’i ‘ai (chief) and managed by a konohiki (overseer and tax collector).

In the above, ahupua’a can be identified in large capital letters on land in the mauka to makai orientation (generally from a coastal point toward the center of the island). Ahupua’a were the main type of land division although there were smaller subdivisions of ahupua’a called ‘ili, usually worked by one extended family, and larger districts called moku made up of several ahupua’a. The largest and most general division was called mokupuni, which was the equivalent of an island. On the map below you can see the moku of Puna, Hilo, Hamakua, Kohala, Kona, and Kau on the mokupuni of Hawai’i.

The Hawaiian word ahupua’a is a combination of ahu, meaning cairn or pile of rocks, and pua’a meaning pig. Ahupua’a boundaries were often marked by a pile of stones that also served as place  where tribute to the ahupua’a ali’i was placed-often a pig. This boundary usually conformed to watersheds as can be seen in the on the map below covering the moku of Hilo on the mokupuni of Hawai’i. The Umauma stream forms the border between the Umauma and Kama’e’e ahupua’a, the Hakalau and Waawaa streams form the border between the Kama’e’e and Hakalau ahupua’a, and the Kolekole stream forms the border between Kaiwikinui and Wailea ahupua’a to the north and Kahua and Honomu ahupua’a to the south.

Based on a Geographic Information Systems (GIS) dataset of ahupua’a boundaries developed by the Office of Hawaiian affairs who reconstructed the boundaries from 19th century survey maps, there were 725 ahupua’a across all eight mokupuni, averaging about 5,678 acres in size with the largest ahupua’a measuring 223,477 acres. Further examination with the Shuttle Radar Topography Mission (SRTM) Digital Elevation Model (DEM) set for the state of Hawaii reveals an average ahupua’a elevation range of 2,995 feet (typically starting at sea level) with an average max elevation of 3,100 feet. On larger and higher elevation mokupuni such as Hawai’i (max elevation 13,803 feet) and Maui (max elevation 10,023 feet), the highest ahupua’a elevation or mauka border typically stopped at the timberline.

A typical ahupua’a usually started on the coast and even extended out into the ocean for access to aquatic resources. Many ahupua’a also contained constructed fishponds on the coast for aquaculture.  According to Keli'i Kotubetey, Hawaiian fishponds could produce up to 300 lbs. of fish per acre per year. The aerial photograph below shows one of the bigger fishponds that still exists on the mokupuni of Hawai’i, Kona moku, Kaloko ahupua’a.

The map below shows the location of the Kaloko Fishpond (currently a National Historic Park) in the Kaloko ahupua’a with the neighboring Honokohau Fishpond to the south. Several ahupua’a boundaries appear on this large scale map delineated by dashed lines.

It was common for the makai residents of an ahupua’a to trade coastal resources that were abundant such as fish, opihi (limpet shellfish), shark teeth, lauhala (leaves of the hala tree) and niu (coconut) with resources from more makua or inland residents like mai’a (bananas), taro, ‘uala (sweet potato), ulu (breadfruit), mamaki (pipturus), or wood. The endemic mamaki grew at a 200-6,000 foot range and could be used for medicine using the fruit or to make kapa cloth from the bast fibers. Hard wood from the ‘ohi’a lehua tree, growing up to an elevation of 8,000 feet, was often used to make kapa cloth beaters or weapons like ihe (spears). One of the more intriguing Hawaiian weapons was the leiomano or shark tooth club, which was made of a hard wood such as acacia koa (found between 300-6000 feet) and shark teeth lashed with olona (Touchardia) found between 229 to 3,937 feet. Fibers from the endemic olona contain very strong fibers and were also used by early Hawaiians as cordage, fishing line, nets, twinned fish baskets, stitching for kapa cloth, and for tying stone adze heads to wooden handles. As one of the largest hard wood trees in Hawai’i, koa was also a commonly used wood for the construction of outrigger or double hulled wa’a (canoes) which could reach up to 100 feet long. The smaller and shorter canoes were typically used for fishing with the longer and larger ones used for inter-island navigation.

Early Hawaiians practiced irrigated farming cultivating taro in ponds along valley floors or terraces built on valley slopes by diverting water from nearby streams in their ahupua’a. Rainfed cultivation of plants such as dry taro, ‘uala, and ko (sugarcane) could be found at various elevations. Domesticated  ?ilio (dog), moa (chicken), and pua’a brought by Polynesians to Hawai’i provided additional protein to the diet besides seafood and their bones were used to fashion fishing hooks.

At the mauka extremes on high elevation mokupuni such as Hawai’i and Maui could be found more unique ahupua’a resources. The mauka side of Ka?ohe ahupua’a in the moku of Hamakua and Kohala, mokupuni of Hawai’i and covering the summits of the island’s two highest mountains (Mauna Kea and Mauna Loa) contained burrow or rock crevice nests above 8,200 feet of the 'ua'u (Hawaiian petrel). According to the Hawaii Department of Natural Resources, the chicks of this pelagic and currently endangered bird was a Hawaiian delicacy. Another currently endangered bird used by early Hawaiians in this ahupua’a was the palila (finch-billed Hawaiian honeycreeper), but it wasn’t used for food due to their small populations. Early Hawaiians prized the yellow feathers of the palila for hulu manu (featherwork) found in ahu`ula (cloaks), kahili (royal standards) and leis (garlands) of the ali’i. Rather than kill the palila for all its feathers, they would instead trap the bird on tree branches with sticky sap from the ulu tree, pluck a few feathers, then let the bird free. The branches the palila were trapped on were often part of the endemic mamane since this tree was the main food source of this bird. Wood from the mamane tree, found between 1,400 to 10,000 feet elevation, was also used for o’o (digging stick), wa’a gunwales and papa holua, a Hawaiian sled used in the extreme sport of he’e holua (sled riding) which utilized the wide elevation range of many ahupua’a.  

The mauka Ka?ohe ahupua’a was also the site of one of the most important resources to early Hawaiians- basalt. This hard volcanic rock could be found at an adze quarry on Mauna Kea where early Hawaiians fashioned stone tools- primarily adzes which were used to cut down trees, shape wa’a, weapons, furniture, and ki?i (wooden idol statues). This 7.5 mile area situated between 8,600 and 13,000 feet elevation is currently part of the Mauna Kea Ice Age Natural Area Reserve and according to the National Park Service the largest primitive rock quarry in the world.

The ahupua’a system of land tenure lasted until 1848 when the Kingdom of Hawai’i implemented the Great Mahele, which changed the land tenure system to fee simple, allowing for private ownership. The map below shows the 40,000 acre grant 3343 in the Wailuku ahupua’a at the neck of the island which was bought and leased by German-American sugar industrialist Claus Spreckels, who according to Char Miller, by 1892 had the largest sugarcane plantation in the world.  Sugar industry interests eventually overthrew the Hawaiian Kingdom in 1893.

Further Reading:

• Holua sledding, the death-defying sport of Hawaiian chiefsHawaii Magazine
• IslandBreath: Hawaiian Ahupuaa
• Native Plants Hawaii
• The GardenFriends of Amy B.H. Greenwell E. Garden (amygreenwell.garden)
• traditional tools | hemakeewaa
• A Story Of Ancient Hawaiian Culture On The Slopes Of Haleakala (tourmaui.com)
• IntroductionMaps by State: Cartographic Resources for HawaiiResearch Guides at Library of Congress (loc.gov)