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Map A chart of the Gulf Stream

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About this Item

Title

  • A chart of the Gulf Stream

Summary

  • "This map, from the Peter Force Map Collection at the Library of Congress, was created by the Philadelphia engraver James Poupard. It was the third in a series featuring a chart of the Gulf Stream. The latter was well known to Spanish ship captains, who relied on it to sail from the Americas to the Iberian Peninsula, but there were no universal charts or maps due to Spanish secrecy. This map originally was sketched by Timothy Folger, a Nantucket fisherman and a cousin of Benjamin Franklin, who conceived the map and actively promoted study of the Gulf Stream. Franklin published the original chart in 1770 and sought to distribute it among mariners, but British sea captains skeptical of colonial ideas largely refused to purchase copies. He suspended his efforts during the American Revolution to avoid giving any advantage to the British, but at the end of the war he collaborated on a second printing in France. In 1786, Poupard's engraving appeared in the Transactions of the American Philosophical Society, the publication of the country's first learned society founded by Franklin and others in 1743." World Digital Library.

Names

  • Poupard, James.
  • Franklin, Benjamin, 1706-1790.

Created / Published

  • [Philadelphia, Pa. : American Philosophical Society, 1786?]

Headings

  • -  Nautical charts--Gulf Stream--Early works to 1800
  • -  Nautical charts--North Atlantic Ocean--Early works to 1800
  • -  Atlantic Ocean--Maps--Early works to 1800
  • -  Gulf Stream--Maps--Early works to 1800
  • -  North Atlantic Ocean--Maps--Early works to 1800
  • -  Atlantic Ocean
  • -  Gulf Stream
  • -  North Atlantic Ocean

Notes

  • -  Appears in the Transactions of the American Philosophical Society, 1786.
  • -  Copy imperfect: Mended triangular loss in upper margin.
  • -  Includes inset of North Atlantic and text in left margin "Remarks upon the navigation from Newfoundland to New-York, in order to avoid the Gulph Stream on one hand, and on the other the shoals that lie to the southward of Nantucket and of St. George's Banks," by B. Franklin.
  • -  Mounted on cloth.
  • -  Upper right margin: plate 5. Lower margin: facing page 315.
  • -  Available also through the Library of Congress Web site as a raster image.

Medium

  • 1 map ; 21 x 26 cm., on sheet 29 x 46 cm.

Call Number/Physical Location

  • G9112.G8P5 1786 .P6

Repository

  • Library of Congress Geography and Map Division Washington, D.C. 20540-4650 USA dcu

Digital Id

Library of Congress Control Number

  • 2004627238

Online Format

  • image

Additional Metadata Formats

IIIF Presentation Manifest

Rights & Access

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Credit Line: [Original Source citation], World Digital Library

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Cite This Item

Citations are generated automatically from bibliographic data as a convenience, and may not be complete or accurate.

Chicago citation style:

Poupard, James, and Benjamin Franklin. A chart of the Gulf Stream. [Philadelphia, Pa.: American Philosophical Society, ?, 1786] Map. https://www.loc.gov/item/2004627238/.

APA citation style:

Poupard, J. & Franklin, B. (1786) A chart of the Gulf Stream. [Philadelphia, Pa.: American Philosophical Society, ?] [Map] Retrieved from the Library of Congress, https://www.loc.gov/item/2004627238/.

MLA citation style:

Poupard, James, and Benjamin Franklin. A chart of the Gulf Stream. [Philadelphia, Pa.: American Philosophical Society, ?, 1786] Map. Retrieved from the Library of Congress, <www.loc.gov/item/2004627238/>.