Catalog Archive
Auction 189, Lot 246

"Long Island Sound (Western Sheet) from a Trigonometrical Survey...", U.S. Coast Survey

Subject: Long Island Sound, New York

Period: 1855 (dated)

Publication:

Color: Black & White

Size:
35.1 x 24.6 inches
89.2 x 62.5 cm
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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 separately published, never folded, chart is printed on heavy paper with platemark. It covers the Long Island Sound from Eastchester to beyond Bridgeport, CT and from Great Neck to Miller Place on Long Island. An inset at top left is the "Continuation from Throg's Neck to the City of New York." The level of detail is exceptional with soundings, bottom types, buoys, shoals, reefs and more on the water and land types, topography, cities and towns, roads, and lighthouses on land. Features six engraved views of lighthouses above and below the chart, along with detail on tides, lighthouses, and sailing instructions. Published under the direction of A.D. Bache.

References:

Condition: A

A crisp impression on a sturdy sheet that has been slightly trimmed along the right edge, far from the image. There is some light printer's ink residue along the platemark at bottom.

Estimate: $300 - $400

Sold for: $350

Closed on 9/14/2022

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