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Maps in the Library of Congress (Texas)
Posted by Kent McMillan on August 3, 2016 at 2:55 amYou just never know where you are going to find some great maps of Texas lands. I was searching for old maps of Houston and the term “Houston” turned up this truly magnificent map of Blocks Nos. 11 & 12 of Houston & Great Northern Rail Road Company Survey in Pecos County, Texas. It has nothing to do with Houston, of course. It’s out in far West Texas.
Apparently, if you were a wealthy Easterner who had quite a bit of West Texas land to sell, as one William Walter Phelps did in 1891, you had a fancy map drawn up which turned out to be so fancy that it ended up in a collection of a library.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Walter_Phelps
I’m not sure why this one ended up in the Library of Congress, but it’s there. As maps go, this is an amazing bit of draftsmanship.
scott-ellis replied 8 years, 1 month ago 6 Members · 12 Replies -
12 Replies
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I love the care, technique and flourish of a fine hand drawn map.
Some artistic technician spent weeks on that.
I could barely form comprehensible stick words with a letter guide.
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Scott Zelenak, post: 383976, member: 327 wrote: Some artistic technician spent weeks on that.
The name of the draftsman was an F.G. Blau who at one time was employed by the Texas General Land Office in Austin. The GLO has some of his maps from the 1870s in their collection. He may have been working for a local land agent in the 1890s.
Edit: Yes, that was the work of F. Gustav Blau who in 1889 was employed as a draftsman at the General Land Office according to the Austin City Directory.
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And here’s both a photo of Franz Gustave Blau, and of his grave that was apparently vandalized during WWI.
Birth: Jul. 28, 1842, ThÌ?ringen, Germany
Death: May 9, 1910, Austin, Texas)http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=8156041&ref=acom
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Hmm. It turns out that the original of the map was most likely made by Mr. Blau while working at the Texas GLO. At least the original is on file there as Map No. 3955, but in very rough shape.
Apparently, the map in the Library of Congress seen above is a photographic copy that was made while the original was new and intact.
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A lot of my work lately has been south and west of these blocks except one project on the west side of Block 8. Adequately monumented. Typical of Giraud. I’m still looking for the witness stones for the common north corner of the reeves/Pecos County line. I do believe it has a chance to still be there but it will certainly be under a layer of silt and within a thicket of salt cedar. I need to take a probe and a chain saw on my next trip.
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It would be interesting to know how it was that the GLO came to make such a magnificent map for William Walter Phelps. The lands were evidently part of the International & Great Northern R.R. Co. lands that were sold to the New York and Texas Land Company and William Walter Phelps was one of the partners of it.
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The graphic masterpieces that exist in the offices of the GLO are quite impressive.
So far the only maps that I have received from the GLO to help my retracing boundaries have been simple sketche files that consist of a few lines and basic cardinal directions and distances with a stick north arrow and a scale of 1in to 100 or more varas.
Many of those wall hanging masterpieces inspired me when I began my drafting career and it was soon obvious that these masters filled as many or more hours creating their accompanying artwork within their drawing and along the borders as they had put into the main object of the drawing.
Outside of drafting class, no employer of mine allowed the creation of any special artwork.
One surveyor I worked with used his antique drafting (broad pens, ink wells and dip pens or crow foot) equipment to ink over his pencil worksheets on bond paper and his drawings were a total mess. Informing him that there are new and improved rapidograph pens of all widths and templates to make shapes and curves and smooth crisp lines was met with an absolute response of “I’ll never consider that”.
Most every other person would overlay their worksheets with velum, lined or other material and apply ink over the image that was visible thru the transparency.
I can remember one draftsman that placed a bass leaping from a lake in the middle of the survey of several thousands of acres and his artistic time being deducted that week from his paycheck. Then after the client was very pleased with the drawing, his pay was reinstated.
In college, drawings for homework, classwork and notes in the field were all expected to be the best possible and were graded for appearance as well as accuracy.
Every surveyor should be given the task to create completed hand drawings during their training.
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A Harris, post: 383998, member: 81 wrote: Outside of drafting class, no employer of mine allowed the creation of any special artwork.
That level of decorative lettering and ornate North Arrow is a bit unusual in the maps of the GLO. Mr. Blau drew a number of the county maps, including this one of San Jacinto County that the Library of Congress lists as a “Land Ownership map”.
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I find these types of contributions refreshing.
History and surveying what better combination could you ask for? -
imaudigger, post: 384076, member: 7286 wrote: I find these types of contributions refreshing.
History and surveying what better combination could you ask for?One of the less appreciated elements of 19th-century Texas surveying is how many German-Texans were involved in it. At one point in the late 19th century, I think that German must have been the second language in the office. Some of the Germans involved in land surveying during the boom after the Civil War included:
William Von Rosenberg,
Jacob Kuechler,
Christof Von Carlowitz,
G. Schadowsky,
Max Von Homeyer, and
Alfred Wyschetzki,to name a few.
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Baron Felix von Blucher as well. He may be 100 years sooner. but he did have a son and grandson who were Surveyors.
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