"Letter from the Secretary of the Treasury, Transmitting the Report of the Superintendent of the Coast Survey, Showing the Progress of That Work During the Year Ending November, 1850", U.S. Coast Survey

The Office of Coast Survey is the oldest U.S. scientific organization, dating from 1807 when Congress directed that a "survey of the coast" be carried out. By 1836, it was called the U.S. Coast Survey and in 1878, the name was changed to the U.S. Coast and Geodetic Survey. Today the Office of Coast Survey is a division of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration NOAA.

The survey teams, composed of civilians as well as Army and Naval officers, charted the nation's waterways and produced a wide array of reports, survey charts, hydrographic studies of tides and currents, astronomical studies and observations, and coastal pilots. These charts are an important record of the changing nature of the nation's coastlines. In additional to coastal charts, the U.S. Coast and Geodetic Survey produced land sketches, Civil War battle maps, and the early aeronautical charts.

This complete annual report by the Coast Survey contains twenty-seven charts and sketches (25 folding). The report documents the earliest Coast Survey work done along the Pacific Coast in three small charts, including the Bay of San Francisco. It also includes work performed in North Carolina, Florida and Texas. Unlike earlier annual reports, this report includes more detailed local charts in addition to the broader, regional charts. Disbound, 134 pp.

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Condition: A

Maps are in excellent condition with some mild toning and several maps have the typical misfolds to get the maps to close into the report. The text is clean with a few small spots of foxing.