Depot de la Marine
1886

Antique chart of the United States West Coast

Cote Occidentale d'Amerique Comprise Entre Les Isles De La Reine Charlotte . . . En 1862 [1886]

DESCRIPTION: Large folding nautical chart of the West Coast of the United States from past San Diego, California in the South to Queen Charlotte Sound and Moresby Island in British Columbia, Canada. Published by France's Depot de la Marine in 1862 but this edition with essential corrections dates to 1886.

With owners overstamps from the Library of Canadian Energy, Mines, and Resources Department in 1969 and 1976. Chart Number 1979.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: 1886

GEOGRAPHIC AREA: United States

BODY OF WATER: Pacific Ocean

CONDITION: Very good. Paper covers with some tears. Dissected and laid to linen at time of issue. Owners and library stamps in left margin. No holes, tears or other damage. Clean.

COLORING: None except lighthouses highlighted in yellow.

ENGRAVER:

SIZE: 25 " x 36 "

ITEM PHYSICAL LOCATION: 2001

PRICE: $550

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