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- ‘One of America’s foremost cartographers’ : Jed Hotchkiss
‘One of America’s foremost cartographers’ : Jed Hotchkiss
- By The Map Collector
- Published 1 November 1989
- Maps
- Unrated
The Map Collector
The Map Collector, initiated by Peter Scott and Valerie G. Newby, was a journal on historical cartography published every quarter. The first issue appeared in 1997 and continued for nearly 20 years. After 74 issues the last copy appeared in Spring 1996. Mrs. Valerie G. Newby, is presently editor of the IMCoS Journal.
www.imcos.org
By Peter Roper
In 1948 the Library of Congress in Washington DC acquired the private papers including maps, diaries and letters of a topographi¬cal engineer in the Confederate States Army, Major Jedediah Hotchkiss. The collection includes 600 maps (340 in manuscript) dealing essentially with Virginia and West Virginia between 1861 and 1865. Here, Peter Roper tells the story of the acquisition of the collection and of its original owner who has been described as 'one of America's foremost cartographers.[1] Some recent events make this account of Hotchkiss and his maps very topical. From December 5, 1988 to May 21, 1989 the Library of Congress exhibited sixty maps from its collection of 2,317 cartographic items pertaining to the Civil War. Among those representing Confederate mapping were four items from the Hotchkiss Collection including the large map of the Shenandoah Valley. In conjunction with this exhibition, the Library of Congress pub¬lished a second, and much enlarged, edition of Civil War Maps: an annotated List of Maps and Atlases in the Library of Congress, compiled by Richard W. Stephenson.
Meanwhile in Winchester, Virginia, Eugene F. Schultz of the Winchester-Frederick County Historical Society, and Handley Library Director, Marianne Roos, had arranged for the three Hotchkiss maps donated to the Library by his granddaughter, to be conserved and placed on public view for the first time on May 25, 1989.
Two months earlier, another Hotchkiss map, a printed one of Augusta County, Virginia, compiled in 1870, and signed by Robert E. Lee, was presented as a loan item to the Museum of American Frontier Culture located near Staunton, Virginia. Hotchkiss made this map when he was engaged by Lee as topographer to the Board of Survey of Washington College, now Washington and Lee University, Lexington, Virginia.
J. COOKE WYLLIE, the Curator of Rare Books at the Alderman Library, University of Virginia, made the comment about led Hotchkiss being 'one of America's foremost cartog¬raphers' after examining a collection of maps offered for sale in Winchester, Virginia.
The seller was Hotchkiss' granddaughter, Mrs R. E. Christian, but the credit for there being a sale at all must go to C. Vernon Eddy of The Handley Library, Winchester, Virginia. For some time, at the behest of Colonel Lawrence Martin, Chief of the Division of Maps at the Library of Congress, he had been seeking the whereabouts of any Hotchkiss maps which may have survived since the American Civil War. In the early thirties he had learned that some of these were stored in Hotchkiss' old home, 'The Oaks', in Staunton, Virginia. However, it was not until 1938 after a meeting with Mrs Christian, that he was invited to the house. Once there, two large boxes were taken out from the 'largest walk-in safe in Augusta county', and forced open. On removing the lids, Eddy 'saw roll after roll of maps, the long lost and almost forgotten work of "Stonewall" lackson's topographical engineer'. He secured Mrs Christian's agreement for the removal of the boxes to The Handley Library where their contents could be examined and catalogued in safety. [2]
The title and a section of a geological map by Hotchkiss. His great post-war service to Virginia was the production of a map to illustrate the pioneering geological survey of the Virginias by the 'father of American geology', William Barten Regers.
(By courtesy of the author)
About the same time there was another who had an interest in locating led's papers. This was Douglas Southall Freeman, the renowned Richmond newspaper editor, historian, and biographer of Robert E. Lee. He had approached led's eldest daughter, Nellie, who was then 81, and learned of the location of the Hotchkiss papers and proposed that he should send his research assistant to Staunton to examine them. Not knowing of her niece's action, Nellie welcomed Freeman's proposal and instructed that the papers and maps should be placed in the parlour of 'The Oaks' in readiness for a visit by Freeman. [3]
The consequence of this lack of consultation between led's only two surviving descendants was that the maps and papers 'passed into Freeman's control to be interred in the 'tomb-like structure' of Battle Abbey in Richmond. [4] Not until Aunt Nellie died in 1947 was it possible for Mrs. Christian, with the help of Eddy, to complete the process of preparing the collection for sale. By the middle of January 1948, Eddy was ready to show the collection to two prospective buyers, the Library of Congress and the Alderman Library. For several weeks 'severe weather and snow blocked roads' prevented their experts from travelling to Winchester.[5]] When, at the third attempt, Mrs LeGear, of the Library of Congress, arrived at The Handley Library she described the maps as 'marvellous' examples of cartography and said she doubted whether anyone then living could do such work.[6] The Library of Congress offered $4,500, a sum which could not be matched by the Alderman Library [7] The negotia¬tions with Eddy and Mrs Christian were concluded in June, 1948, and all but four of the maps, which were retained by the Handley Library, were transferred to the Library of Congress [8] By way of a consolation prize, the Alderman Library was able to buy from Mrs Christian, Hotchkiss' papers, maps and ephemera, which had not been included in the material sent to Battle Abbey. [9]
The author became aware of Jedediah Hotchkiss in 1976 from reading a reprint of an article written by Mrs LeGear and first published shortly after the map collection had been acquired by the Library of Congress. From this article it was clear that Hotchkiss was a man of extraordinary interest, one who would be worth getting to know. Serious study had to wait until retirement provided sufficient time to sift through and read the mass of Hotchkiss papers which Eddy had rescued from obscurity. Two long visits to the USA allowed travel over much of the territory familiar to Hotchkiss; his birthplace in the State of New York, his beloved Valley of Virginia where he made his home, and the wild country of West Virginia where the coal industry was to owe so much to his efforts. [10]
In 1948 the Library of Congress in Washington DC acquired the private papers including maps, diaries and letters of a topographi¬cal engineer in the Confederate States Army, Major Jedediah Hotchkiss. The collection includes 600 maps (340 in manuscript) dealing essentially with Virginia and West Virginia between 1861 and 1865. Here, Peter Roper tells the story of the acquisition of the collection and of its original owner who has been described as 'one of America's foremost cartographers.[1] Some recent events make this account of Hotchkiss and his maps very topical. From December 5, 1988 to May 21, 1989 the Library of Congress exhibited sixty maps from its collection of 2,317 cartographic items pertaining to the Civil War. Among those representing Confederate mapping were four items from the Hotchkiss Collection including the large map of the Shenandoah Valley. In conjunction with this exhibition, the Library of Congress pub¬lished a second, and much enlarged, edition of Civil War Maps: an annotated List of Maps and Atlases in the Library of Congress, compiled by Richard W. Stephenson.
Meanwhile in Winchester, Virginia, Eugene F. Schultz of the Winchester-Frederick County Historical Society, and Handley Library Director, Marianne Roos, had arranged for the three Hotchkiss maps donated to the Library by his granddaughter, to be conserved and placed on public view for the first time on May 25, 1989.
Two months earlier, another Hotchkiss map, a printed one of Augusta County, Virginia, compiled in 1870, and signed by Robert E. Lee, was presented as a loan item to the Museum of American Frontier Culture located near Staunton, Virginia. Hotchkiss made this map when he was engaged by Lee as topographer to the Board of Survey of Washington College, now Washington and Lee University, Lexington, Virginia.
J. COOKE WYLLIE, the Curator of Rare Books at the Alderman Library, University of Virginia, made the comment about led Hotchkiss being 'one of America's foremost cartog¬raphers' after examining a collection of maps offered for sale in Winchester, Virginia.
The seller was Hotchkiss' granddaughter, Mrs R. E. Christian, but the credit for there being a sale at all must go to C. Vernon Eddy of The Handley Library, Winchester, Virginia. For some time, at the behest of Colonel Lawrence Martin, Chief of the Division of Maps at the Library of Congress, he had been seeking the whereabouts of any Hotchkiss maps which may have survived since the American Civil War. In the early thirties he had learned that some of these were stored in Hotchkiss' old home, 'The Oaks', in Staunton, Virginia. However, it was not until 1938 after a meeting with Mrs Christian, that he was invited to the house. Once there, two large boxes were taken out from the 'largest walk-in safe in Augusta county', and forced open. On removing the lids, Eddy 'saw roll after roll of maps, the long lost and almost forgotten work of "Stonewall" lackson's topographical engineer'. He secured Mrs Christian's agreement for the removal of the boxes to The Handley Library where their contents could be examined and catalogued in safety. [2]
The title and a section of a geological map by Hotchkiss. His great post-war service to Virginia was the production of a map to illustrate the pioneering geological survey of the Virginias by the 'father of American geology', William Barten Regers.
(By courtesy of the author)
About the same time there was another who had an interest in locating led's papers. This was Douglas Southall Freeman, the renowned Richmond newspaper editor, historian, and biographer of Robert E. Lee. He had approached led's eldest daughter, Nellie, who was then 81, and learned of the location of the Hotchkiss papers and proposed that he should send his research assistant to Staunton to examine them. Not knowing of her niece's action, Nellie welcomed Freeman's proposal and instructed that the papers and maps should be placed in the parlour of 'The Oaks' in readiness for a visit by Freeman. [3]
The consequence of this lack of consultation between led's only two surviving descendants was that the maps and papers 'passed into Freeman's control to be interred in the 'tomb-like structure' of Battle Abbey in Richmond. [4] Not until Aunt Nellie died in 1947 was it possible for Mrs. Christian, with the help of Eddy, to complete the process of preparing the collection for sale. By the middle of January 1948, Eddy was ready to show the collection to two prospective buyers, the Library of Congress and the Alderman Library. For several weeks 'severe weather and snow blocked roads' prevented their experts from travelling to Winchester.[5]] When, at the third attempt, Mrs LeGear, of the Library of Congress, arrived at The Handley Library she described the maps as 'marvellous' examples of cartography and said she doubted whether anyone then living could do such work.[6] The Library of Congress offered $4,500, a sum which could not be matched by the Alderman Library [7] The negotia¬tions with Eddy and Mrs Christian were concluded in June, 1948, and all but four of the maps, which were retained by the Handley Library, were transferred to the Library of Congress [8] By way of a consolation prize, the Alderman Library was able to buy from Mrs Christian, Hotchkiss' papers, maps and ephemera, which had not been included in the material sent to Battle Abbey. [9]
The author became aware of Jedediah Hotchkiss in 1976 from reading a reprint of an article written by Mrs LeGear and first published shortly after the map collection had been acquired by the Library of Congress. From this article it was clear that Hotchkiss was a man of extraordinary interest, one who would be worth getting to know. Serious study had to wait until retirement provided sufficient time to sift through and read the mass of Hotchkiss papers which Eddy had rescued from obscurity. Two long visits to the USA allowed travel over much of the territory familiar to Hotchkiss; his birthplace in the State of New York, his beloved Valley of Virginia where he made his home, and the wild country of West Virginia where the coal industry was to owe so much to his efforts. [10]
