Circa 1938 National Park Service silkscreen poster for Fort Marion National Monument.

Washington, D.C., 1914. “Treasury Department Office of U.S. Treasurer. Reserve vault cash room packages seen in picture contain over 80 million dollars.” National Photo Company Collection glass negative.

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Sidney Lust’s Leader Theater in Washington, D.C. Now playing: Douglas Fairbanks in “The Mark of Zorro.

The David Rumsey Map Collection was formed by David Rumsey over the last 30 years. Rumsey has scanned more than 17,000 of the maps since 1999 and put them online in a free public map library at www.davidrumsey.com. Rumsey believes in free public access to his maps, so visitors can not only look at the maps in full high resolution (some of the digital map images are 2 GB) but they can also download them for personal use.

The over 120 historical maps in the Google Maps Rumsey Historical Maps site have been selected by David Rumsey from his collection of more than 150,000 historical maps; in addition, there are a few maps from collections with which he collaborates.

All the maps contain rich information about the past and represent a sampling of time periods (1680 to 1930), scales, and cartographic art, resulting in visual history stories that only old maps can tell. Each map has been georeferenced, thus creating unique digital map images that allow the old maps to appear in their correct places on the modern globe.

Some of the maps fit perfectly in their modern spaces, while others (generally earlier period maps) reveal interesting geographical misconceptions of their time and therefore have to be more distorted to fit properly in Google Maps. Cultural features on the maps can be compared to the modern satellite views using the slider bars to adjust transparency.

The original historical maps are first made into digital images by scanning them with high resolution digital cameras. Then these digital images are transformed in a process called georeferencing, which makes them display in their correct geographical spaces in Google Maps. Georeferencing is done using a GIS program, which takes points on the old maps (cities, coast lines, rivers, streets) and connects them to the same points on a modern satellite map image or a modern street map or a modern map showing boundaries of countries and states. The GIS program then takes all these points (as many as 200 are made for very large maps) and uses them to recreate the digital image so it will fit into its modern geographical space. Often the image has to be curved a bit for this to be accomplished.

The result is an exploration of time as well as space, a marriage of historic cartographic masterpieces with innovative contemporary software tools.

The David Rumsey Map Collection was formed by David Rumsey over the last 30 years. Rumsey has scanned more than 17,000 of the maps since 1999 and put them online in a free public map library at www.davidrumsey.com. Rumsey believes in free public access to his maps, so visitors can not only look at the maps in full high resolution (some of the digital map images are 2 GB) but they can also download them for personal use. Link

Written by Christopher S. Putnam

Just after midnight on the morning of June 13, 1942, twenty-one-year-old coastguardsman John Cullen was beginning his foot patrol along the coast of Long Island, New York. Although this particular stretch of beach was considered a likely target for enemy landing parties, the young Seaman was the sole line of defense on that foggy night; and his only weapon, a trusty flashlight, was proving ineffective against the smothering haze. As Cullen approached a dune on the beach, the shape of a man suddenly appeared before him. Momentarily startled, he called out for the shape to identify itself.

“We’re fishermen from Southampton,” a voice responded. A middle-aged man emerged from the soupy fog, and continued, “We’ve run ashore.” This sounded plausible to Cullen, so he invited the fisherman and his crew to stay the night at the nearby Coast Guard station. The offer appeared to agitate the man, and he refused. “We don’t have a fishing license,” he explained.

Just as Cullen’s suspicions began to grow, a second figure appeared over the dune and shouted something in German. The man in front of Cullen spun around, yelling, “You damn fool! Go back to the others!” Then he turned back to Cullen with an intensity in his expression that left the Seaman paralyzed—for he was now almost certain that he was alone on the beach with a party of Nazi spies.

The German agent stood close, and hissed, “Do you have a mother? A father?” As Cullen nodded, he continued, “Well, I wouldn’t want to have to kill you.” He held out a wad of cash. “Forget about this, take this money, and go have a good time.” Cullen, realizing this might be his only chance to walk away alive, decided to accept. As he reached for the roll of bills, the man suddenly lunged forward and seized Cullen’s flashlight. He then pointed the light toward his own face. “Do you know me?” he asked.

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A message in a bottle, which has floated on the waves of time for 90 years, has been found by French archaeologists.

The beer bottle contained a letter sent to an American soldier fighting in the First World War from his “Aunt Pete” in Oklahoma City. It was discovered by accident by archaeologists exploring a 6th and 7th century Merovingian settlement, at Messein in Lorraine.

The letter gives a jaunty, unthinkingly racist account of life in the US Midwest in July 1918, four months before the end of the war. “Its [sic] all most [sic] impossible to get help of any kind and those you do get are likely to be called any time,” Aunt Pete writes. “There is a big bunch of darkeys going tomorrow night. They had a big parade today and are going to have a big dance tomorrow at the colored park: we lost our porter.”

The letter appears to have reached Sergeant Morres Vickers Liepman, of D Battery, 130th Field Artillery, who was serving with the 35th Division of the American expeditionary force in Lorraine.

Sgt Liepman, who survived the war, placed the letter in the bottle and buried it. He may have been trying to preserve it during a German bombardment.

Officials from Inrap have tried to trace Sgt Liepman’s descendants without success. The US embassy in Paris has discovered that Morres V Liepman studied in Pittsburgh, Kansas, and enlisted on 25 July 1917. He reached Le Havre in June 1918 and fought in the battles of the Argonne, Saint-Mihiel and the Vosges. In the autumn of 1918 his unit was stationed in the Haye Forest sector not far from the Noires terres where his letter was found. He returned to the US in 1919. Aunt Pete’s second name is unknown. The only address on her letter is that of the Robert M Scott drugstore in Oklahoma City.

A compilation of people who have mysteriously Disappeared, whose death is not substantiated, whose remains have not been recovered, whose current whereabouts are unknown, and who may be presumed deceased.

If you need proof that metal detectors work, you’ll find it here, as the BBC reports:

The most important Viking treasure find in Britain for 150 years has been unearthed by a father and son while metal detecting in Yorkshire.

David and Andrew Whelan uncovered the hoard, which dates back to the 10th Century, in Harrogate in January. . . .
It truly is a brilliant find:

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The New York Times has an infographic on the wealthiest Americans in history. The fortune of each is adjusted for inflation into 2007 dollars. The rankings are based on wealth as a percentage of Gross Domestic Product. Only two are alive today, and although many were born relatively rich, only one made the list soley by inherited wealth. Link