The Siege of Savannah

Today marks the 232nd anniversary of the beginning of the Siege of Savannah, which lasted from September 16th to October 18th, 1779.

In honor of one of the bloodiest battles of the Revolutionary War, here is a 1779 map of Savannah, Georgia by Pierre Ozanne:

During the Siege of Savannah, troops led by French Admiral the Comte d'Estaing attempted to reclaim Savannah, Georgia from the British. D'Estaing had just recaptured Grenada from the British, and there were high hopes for his success in Savannah. Unfortunately, the tactics employed on the Franco-American side were perhaps not the wisest (bombarding the city rather than the entrenchments, putting off the assault on British defenses until there were not enough supplies to last through a traditional siege), and the British won a decisive victory. They held Savannah until July 1782, near the end of the war.

For a detailed and zoom-able version of the map, click here.
To read more about the Siege of Savannah, click here.

Think Portable GPS Devices are new? Think again.

In the year 1927 the Plus Four Wristlet Route Indicator was invented. This new fangled device showed the wearer a map of their location and by merely twisting either the upper or lower nobs the map unwound with a viewfinder showing a section of the road that they were on. With 20 interchangeable maps this device would have been highly useful to those who traveled often and it is a bit of a surprise that these did not even make it to mass production phases.

Beyond the mapping feature it also included a way to keep score in Golf, perhaps this would have been more suited to come with maps for a golf course rather than cross country? MailOnline

Do you know your hometown like the back of your hand?

Well a lady from 1851 had the opportunity to have the world in the palm of her hand, or at the very least London.

Created for an international exposition held there in London,  this piece of ephemera was used not only as an advertisement of where to go to see exhibits to the tourist that came from all over but as a permanent map for use at a later time.

New Map Aquisition!

The Map library has recently been gifted a wonderful addition to our French map collection. The generous William Heidrich has purchased for us the rare and exceptional 18th century Claude Roussel Nouveau Plan de Paris.

"The Roussel piece is a magnificent wall plan of Paris that thoroughly maps the city and provides visual depictions of its iconic structures. The 37 vignettes that surround the map illustrate the city’s well- and lesser-known architectural triumphs, including palaces, major administrative buildings, gardens, and arches. Also among the vignettes are a small panoramic view of the city, and another of the Pont Royal."

For more information click here.

Did you know? Not all maps are of earth.

In 1829 this detailed map made by ML Frankheim was published in Popular Astronomy

via Peacay

The mapping of objects other than the earth started well before we were able to actually take photographs of surfaces.