Tamalpais Quadrangle (Topography)

$145

Cartographer(s): Office of the Coast Survey
Date: 1913
Place: Washington, D.C.
Dimensions: 43 x 56 cm (17 x 22 in)
Condition Rating: VG

In stock

1913 topographic map of southwest Marin County – early Stinson Beach township.

Details

Extensively detailed topographic map of Marin County, covering an area from the Golden Gate to Bolinas to San Rafael. The map offers interesting detail of the natural landscape of Mt. Tamalpais, including Muir Woods National Monument just 5 years after Theodore Roosevelt declared it a national park.

Important landmarks of the coast of West Marin are displayed, including the lighthouse at Point Bonita. Stinson Beach is shown at its inception, a time when it consisted of a few business started by refugees of the Great San Francisco Earthquake and Fire of 1906.

The map is interesting as well for its historical information, plotting the course of railroads and bridges, and features like land grant boundaries and reservation lines. San Rafael is by far the most developed city in the county at this time, and the map displays its urban grid to the individual building level.

Cartographer(s):

Office of the Coast Survey

The Office of Coast Survey is the official chartmaker of the United States. Set up in 1807, it is one of the U.S. government’s oldest scientific organizations. In 1878 it was given the name of Coast and Geodetic Survey (C&GS). In 1970 it became part of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).

The agency was established in 1807 when President Thomas Jefferson signed the document entitled “An act to provide for surveying the coasts of the United States.” While the bill’s objective was specific—to produce nautical charts—it reflected larger issues of concern to the new nation: national boundaries, commerce, and defense.

Alexander Dallas Bache, great-grandson of Benjamin Franklin, was the second Coast Survey superintendent. Bache was a physicist, scientist, and surveyor who established the first magnetic observatory and served as the first president of the National Academy of Sciences. Under Bache, Coast Survey quickly applied its resources to the Union cause during the Civil War. In addition to setting up additional lithographic presses to produce the thousands of charts required by the Navy and other vessels, Bache made a critical decision to send Coast Survey parties to work with blockading squadrons and armies in the field, producing hundreds of maps and charts.

In 1871, Congress officially expanded the Coast Survey’s responsibilities to include geodetic surveys in the interior of the country, and one of its first major projects in the interior was to survey the 39th Parallel across the entire country. Between 1874 and 1877, the Coast Survey employed the naturalist and author John Muir as a guide and artist during the survey of the 39th Parallel in the Great Basin of Nevada and Utah. To reflect its acquisition of the mission of surveying the U.S. interior and the growing role of geodesy in its operations, the U.S. Coast Survey was renamed the United States Coast and Geodetic Survey (USC&GS) in 1878.

Condition Description

Some wear and minor discoloration along folds.

References