The French were on the forefront of mapmaking in the 18th century. Geographers such as Robert Vaugondy carefully sifted through a wide variety of available reports, maps, and scientific measurements, balancing differences in conflicting reports.
This map focuses on French-controlled parts of North America. Vaugondy’s depiction of the Great Lakes is heavily influenced by Bellin’s 1744 map. The British were...
Continue reading "On Display This Week: 1755 French map of Canada"...The Bergens were among the original settlers of a remote place called Breuklen, New Netherlands, which was later called Brooklyn, New York. For several generations this Norse/Dutch family worked their own farmland. Eventually the economic reach of New York City altered farming in Brooklyn from field crops to more profitable vegetables. As farm income and therefore land values rose, the Bergens and other such families...
Continue reading "On Display This Week: Brooklyn property sale map"...-and-
Archidiaconatus Baumburgensis: Tabula Topographica. Published in Vol. 3 of Monumenta Bioca by the Akademie in Munich, 1764.
These two maps note the locations of monasteries churches and chapels within two Archdioceses in Bavaria. One exception is a depiction in the Garsensis map of two armies clashing in red and blue coats. This is to note the glorious victory for House of Wittlesbach over the powerful Habsburgs,...
Continue reading "On Display This Week: Bavarian Monasteries"...The MSU Libraries have purchased campus-wide access to The Chronicle of Higher Education. The site license allows MSU departments and faculty members to save money by cancelling their individual subscriptions to The Chronicle and connecting through the library’s subscription instead.
From a computer on campus, simply go to the Chronicle website: chronicle.com. The entire MSU IP range is covered by the new subscription, so no login or password is needed.
From a computer off-campus, you must connect through the library’s proxy server: http://ezproxy.msu.edu/login?url=http://...
Continue reading "New campus-wide access for The Chronicle of Higher Education"...-and-
From 1818 to 1836 Wisconsin was part of Michigan Territory. European settlement was sparse west of Lake Michigan, with Green Bay Township, located in Brown County, and some lead mines in the southwest being the only settlements of note.
Map-makers rarely depicted the entire legal boundary of the Territory. Perhaps...
Continue reading "On Display This Week: Green Bay, Michigan?"...Made by the Tri-County Regional Planning Commission in 1970.
This map shows the locations of nuclear bomb shelters in the 3-county area around Lansing. The number next to each dot refers to a listing that names each of the 389 locations. Approximately one-quarter of the locations were not open to the general public but rather served a defined population (usually residents of a marked area).
The Tri-County Regional Planning Commission participated in a federal program to develop a...
Continue reading "On Display This Week: Lansing-East Lansing Community [Nuclear] Shelter Map, 1970"...This township plat map shows land owners in one 6-mile by 6-mile survey township in Montmorency County, Michigan. The names entered here represent the first time these lands were in private hands under state and federal law and shows transactions that occurred through about 1874.
Practically all of the land sold in this township served as either bounty lands to compensate veterans under the Scrip Warrant Act of 1855 or to support the establishment of Agricultural Colleges through the Morrill Act of 1862. The proceeds from land sold to...
Continue reading "On Display This Week:: Township Plat from mid-1870's"...Dediée au roy de Danemark par son trés humble et trés obeissant et trés fidele serviteur Lahontan. 1703.
Captain Louis-Armand de Lom d’Arce, Baron de Lahontan of the French marines explored the western Great Lakes. As a colorful and flamboyant figure he caused controversy and comment everywhere he went.
Scholars usually lambaste his cartographic style, which was less accurate than other works of his time. The stylization seems to accentuate relationships and features more so than spatial accuracy, much like a subway map.
Other troubles...
Continue reading "New in the Map Library: Carte Generale de Canada, 1703"...New publishing techniques make it possible for everyone who writes to publish books. MSU Journalism instructor Joe Grimm has published eight books using several methods, including the academic press, print on demand, working directly with publishers, multi-platform digital publishing, and working with small publishers. Come figure out how to publish your next book!
Part of the Faculty Discussion Group series on Alternative Publishing Models in Academia, organized by the MSU Libraries in response to faculty request.
Wednesday, January 30, 4-5 PM
MSU Main Library,...
Etats Unis de l'Amerique Septentrionale
by Charles François Delamarche, published by Antoine Boudet in Paris in 1785.
Detail from map
This map captures the state of affairs in the short period between the Treaty of Paris in 1783 and the formation of the Northwest Territory in 1787. When the United States successfully broke with Great Britain it consisted of 13 states and a considerable amount of unorganized territory. The exact boundaries of the states, especially their western boundaries, were quite imprecise.
The text mentions 10 new states to...
Continue reading "New in the Map Library: Etats Unis de l'Amerique Septentrionale, 1785"...