Depot de la Marine
1873

Antique French Chart of the Straits of Florida and Bahamas

Mer des Antilles Carte des Passages au Nord de Cuba.

DESCRIPTION: Attractive antique French navigation chart covers the Strait of Florida, Grand Bahama Bank, Little Bahama Bank, and much of Cuba. Originally released in 1865 this edition was printed with updates in 1873 by France's Depot de la Marine. Includes the Florida Keys, the Tortugas, Great Abaco Island, Grand Bahama Island, Andros Island, and the Bahamian island chain as far south as Great Inagua Island. Named habitations include Tampa, Florida, and Havana, Cuba.

Perhaps the most signifcant feature of the map is the lack of settlements along Florida's east coast. Hydrographic features on the lower east coast include the Indian River, Jupiter Inlet, Biscayne Bay, and Hillsboro Inlet ("Entre de Hillsboro") but the sole settlement is Fort Dallas, established on Key Biscayne by the U.S. Navy in 1836 to prevent trade between the indigenous Seminole Indians and traders from Cuba and the West Indies.

Chart is a lithograph, based on U.S. and Spanish precursor charts, produced in 1873 by France's Depot de Cartes et Plans de la Marine, their official hydrographic agency.The Depot de la Marine was established in 1720 under the French Ministry of the Navy to collect, preserve, and publish nautical charts, sailing directions, and maritime intelligence for the French naval service. Its purpose was both archival and practical: to centralize geographic knowledge gathered from voyages, surveys, and colonial administration, and to convert that information into standardized charts for navigation. Over the eighteenth century the Depot became the principal hydrographic authority of France, issuing engraved sea charts that incorporated data from naval expeditions, colonial outposts, and scientific voyages.

Following the French Revolution, the institution was reorganized and its chart production expanded, particularly during the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries as global maritime competition intensified. The Depot de la Marine supervised official surveys, revised earlier charts, and maintained copperplates for continued reissue as coastal knowledge improved. In 1886 it was formally reorganized as the Service hydrographique de la Marine, the predecessor of today’s French hydrographic office. Charts bearing the Depot imprint remain important records of French naval activity, colonial expansion, and the technical development of European hydrography.

CREATOR: Depot de la Marine

PUBLICATION DATE: 1873

GEOGRAPHIC AREA: United States

BODY OF WATER: Strait of Florida

CONDITION: Good. A fine impression on a heavy watermarked sheet with some small, unobtrusive repaired worm holes in the map image. Clean. Archivally repaired minor marginal tears outside the image.

COLORING: Original yellow and red hand color marking lighthouses and navigational aids.

ENGRAVER: C.E. Collin

SIZE: 39 " x 29 "

ITEM PHYSICAL LOCATION: 1111

PRICE: $900

ADD TO CART

This web site provides security by Rapid SSL

Similar items:

8059	Native Americans Map of Mennonite Missions Interwar Period A sigular cyanotype blueprint map issued by the General Conference of Mennonites (GCM) in the late 1920s or early 1930s, this map titled AM. Indian Mission Fields was created as an . . .	Details	1930	General-Council-of-Mennonites	Native-Americans-Map-of-Mennonite-Missions-Interwar-Period	A sigular cyanotype blueprint map issued by the General Conference of Mennonites (GCM) in the late 1920s or early 1930s, this map titled AM. Indian Mission Fields was created as an institutional planning and promotional tool rather than a conventional geographic survey. The map shows roads, towns, GCM fields, and GCM missions in three states: Montana, Arizona, and Montana. An inset map of the United States shows the relative locations of the GCM missions within the United States. Tribes located on the map include the Hopi, Leupp, Cheyenne, the Cheyenne Arapaho, and Navajo. <br><br> The map translates complex Indigenous homelands into legible service areas, emphasizing responsibility, access, and administration. What it includes, and what it leaves out, reflects the priorities of the organization that produced it, revealing how Native American lands were visually redefined to support religious outreach and oversight rather than Indigenous sovereignty.<br><br> Infrastructure plays a central role in this reframing. The map is organized around highways, including the newly established U.S. numbered routes of the late 1920s, transforming Native space into a network of reachable points connected by automobile travel. Roads function here not simply as transportation features but as the map’s underlying logic, normalizing mobility, circulation, and regular visitation. In doing so, the map aligns missionary work with the broader integration of Native regions into national systems of movement and administration during the Route 66 era.<br><br>
8060	Late 19th Century Map of Gulf Coast Fishing Grounds An early federal fisheries chart of the northern Gulf of Mexico titled Fishing Grounds of the Gulf Coast of the United States (Chart No. 16), covering the coast from the Mis . . .	Details	1887	Goode--G--Brown	Late-19th-Century-Map-of-Gulf-Coast-Fishing-Grounds	An early federal fisheries chart of the northern Gulf of Mexico titled <i>Fishing Grounds of the Gulf Coast of the United States</i> (Chart No. 16), covering the coast from the Mississippi Delta and Mobile Bay east to the Florida Keys and Cape Canaveral. The map plots depth soundings in fathoms and outlines key offshore banks and ledges, with dotted boundaries marking the reported limits of the red snapper and grouper fishing grounds. Notes identify the operating ranges of Gulf fishing smacks and indicate principal fishery localities along the shore, capturing a working geography of the region at the height of nineteenth century commercial sail fisheries.<br><br> Issued as part of the U.S. Fish Commission publication <i>The Fishery Industries of the United States</i> (Section III), the sheet is significant as an early attempt to translate fishermen's local knowledge into a standardized, survey-like document. It helped define where high value reef and bottom fisheries were concentrated relative to depth and distance offshore, information central to the expansion of long range Gulf fishing and the emerging national seafood trade. Today it also serves as a baseline record of fishing grounds and practices before twentieth century industrialization, making it valuable for historians of American maritime economy and for long term environmental comparison. <br><br> "The Fishery Industries of the United States". 1887. Section 3. Page 62.<br><br>
8064	Mid century scarf Eglin Air Force Base Florida This scarce and colorful mid-20th-century souvenir textile celebrates Eglin Air Force Base, Florida, presenting the installation as a principal proving ground of American air power . . .	Details	1959	Anonymous	Mid-century-scarf-Eglin-Air-Force-Base-Florida	This scarce and colorful mid-20th-century souvenir textile celebrates Eglin Air Force Base, Florida, presenting the installation as a principal proving ground of American air power during the early Cold War. A pictorial map of Florida labeled “Air Proving Ground Command” anchors the design, surrounded by illustrations of jet aircraft, test pilots, target vehicles, and specialized facilities. The textile combines cartographic imagery with promotional aviation art, adapting a souvenir-scarf format widely used for U.S. Air Force bases in the 1950s.<br><br> The aircraft depicted represent the forefront of U.S. Air Force technology in the supersonic transition era. Shown at mid-left is a B-52 Stratofortress, identifiable by its long straight wings and eight-engine configuration, symbolizing strategic bomber testing. At upper left appears a Lockheed F-104 Starfighter, recognizable by its needle-like fuselage and extremely short wings, while at upper right is a Convair F-102 Delta Dagger, distinguished by its pure delta wing and nose intake. Also depicted is a Republic F-84F Thunderstreak, a swept-wing fighter-bomber widely used in weapons and systems evaluation during the mid-1950s. Additional imagery of test pilots and supersonic tow targets reinforces Eglin’s testing mission.<br><br> The dating of the textile is supported by both the aircraft selection and the prominent reference to the Climatic Hangar, a facility completed at Eglin in 1954 and widely promoted in subsequent years for extreme-environment testing. The inclusion of the F-102, operational from 1956, and the F-104, which entered U.S. Air Force service in 1958, establishes a firm late-1950s timeframe, while the F-84F reinforces a mid-to-late 1950s context. The absence of later aircraft types or space-age imagery associated with the 1960s further supports an early Cold War date. These elements place the textile most convincingly in the late 1950s, circa 1958 to 1960.<br><br>
8077	The Port Royal Experiment Manuscript Civil War Map Beaufort SC This Civil War–era manuscript map of Beaufort, South Carolina and its surrounding waterways documents the region at the birth of Reconstruction ca. 1862. The map is perhaps the ea . . .	Details	1862	Unknown-Union-Source	The-Port-Royal-Experiment-Manuscript-Civil-War-Map-Beaufort-SC	This Civil War–era manuscript map of Beaufort, South Carolina and its surrounding waterways documents the region at the birth of Reconstruction ca. 1862. The map is perhaps the earliest record during what became known as the <b>Port Royal Experiment</b>, when Union occupation, emancipation, and continued military conflict unfolded at the same time. The map shows inland roads, ferries, and navigable rivers, identifies numerous named plantations, and records Union and Confederate picket positions, defensive rifle pits near Beaufort, the battlefield at Port Royal Ferry, and notations of Confederate shelling. It reflects a landscape under Union control but still actively contested.<br><br>The most striking feature of the map is the large number of plantations recorded and the size of the text used to describe plantation ownership vs the military detail. After Union forces captured the Beaufort area in late 1861, most plantation owners fled, leaving more than ten thousand emancipated Gullah people on intact estates without pay, supplies, or legal protection. Beginning in 1862, Northerners arrived to address immediate problems: preventing starvation, organizing paid work, starting schools, and safeguarding newly won freedom for the formerly enslaved. For teachers, missionaries, Treasury agents, and Army officers, a map like this was a working tool. It showed where people lived, where food and cotton were stored, how plantations were connected by roads and waterways, and which routes could be traveled with relative safety.
8081	Birds eye view of Cape May showing tract developed by Cape May Beach Land Company Bird's-Eye-View of Cape May Showing Tract Developed by Cape May Beach Land Company is an early 20th century promotional bird's-eye map (1911) illustrating planned seaside developme . . .	Details	1911	Cape-May-Beach-Land-Company	Birds-eye-view-of-Cape-May-showing-tract-developed-by-Cape-May-Beach-Land-Company	Bird's-Eye-View of Cape May Showing Tract Developed by Cape May Beach Land Company is an early 20th century promotional bird's-eye map (1911) illustrating planned seaside development at Cape May Point, New Jersey. Drawn from an elevated offshore perspective, the map depicts the Atlantic Ocean to the east and Delaware Bay to the west, with the narrow peninsula rendered as a carefully organized landscape of streets, blocks, and shoreline frontage. The view emphasizes proximity to the ocean and bay, reinforcing the site's appeal as a coastal resort and real estate investment.<br><br> The map clearly identifies the holdings of the Cape May Beach Land Company, with proposed streets, lot divisions, and key features such as Lighthouse Lake, Lake Lily, and the Cape Island Turnpike. Existing hotels, cottages, and infrastructure are selectively illustrated, while open land is subdivided into regular parcels intended for sale. Nautical elements, sailing vessels, and shoreline details add visual interest while reinforcing the maritime setting and leisure-oriented character of the development.<br><br> Issued as a sales and promotional piece, the map includes contact details for the land company, underscoring its role as a speculative development advertisement. As an example of American bird's-eye cartography used for real estate promotion, the map documents the planned expansion of Cape May Point during a period of active coastal resort development, blending persuasive imagery with practical layout information for prospective buyers.<br><br> Verso with a detailed plan of lots for sale within the development.