• Home
  • Visit
    • Accessibility
    • Current Exhibits
    • Lightship Columbia
    • 3D Theater
    • Warnock Model Boat Pond
    • Museum Gallery Map
    • What Our Visitors Are Saying
    • Upcoming Events
    • Online Exhibits
  • Education
    • Schools >
      • Miniboat Program >
        • Miniboats in the News
      • Field Trips >
        • Learning Labs
        • Group Visit
      • Museum in the Schools
      • Children of a Common River Poetry Contest
    • Adult Education >
      • Workshops
      • Group Visits
      • Lectures
      • Senior Enrichment Programs
      • Adult Carving & Weaving Clubs
    • Public Programming >
      • In the Community
      • In Museum Programming
      • Online Learning
  • Collections
    • Online Collections
  • Reference Library
  • Store
  • Join/Give
    • Individual/Family Memberships
    • Business Memberships
    • Planned Giving
    • Donate to Curatorial
    • Volunteer
    • Join Our Crew
  • Campus Transformation
  • Celebrating 50 Years of The QuarterDeck
  • MARINERS HALL PROJECT GOALS
  Columbia River Maritime Museum
  • Home
  • Visit
    • Accessibility
    • Current Exhibits
    • Lightship Columbia
    • 3D Theater
    • Warnock Model Boat Pond
    • Museum Gallery Map
    • What Our Visitors Are Saying
    • Upcoming Events
    • Online Exhibits
  • Education
    • Schools >
      • Miniboat Program >
        • Miniboats in the News
      • Field Trips >
        • Learning Labs
        • Group Visit
      • Museum in the Schools
      • Children of a Common River Poetry Contest
    • Adult Education >
      • Workshops
      • Group Visits
      • Lectures
      • Senior Enrichment Programs
      • Adult Carving & Weaving Clubs
    • Public Programming >
      • In the Community
      • In Museum Programming
      • Online Learning
  • Collections
    • Online Collections
  • Reference Library
  • Store
  • Join/Give
    • Individual/Family Memberships
    • Business Memberships
    • Planned Giving
    • Donate to Curatorial
    • Volunteer
    • Join Our Crew
  • Campus Transformation
  • Celebrating 50 Years of The QuarterDeck
  • MARINERS HALL PROJECT GOALS
Picture
Gerard Mercator
Septentrionalium Terrarum descriptio
​Amsterdam 1595
The innovative and well-known cartographer and author of this map, Gerard Mercator, died in 1594, leaving his son Rumold to publish it in the last of three parts forming the famous Mercator atlas Atlantis Pars Altera.  This is not only the first, but also the most influential map to be devoted to the Arctic.

This particular map is the second state (edition or version) and was published by Jodocus Hondius in a French-language edition of Mercator's atlas in 1606.

Of particular interest is the identification of the northern portion of the North American continent as California, the first use of the word other than in identifying the peninsula later known as Lower (or Baja) California.  Here, California is identified as Spanish territory, El streto de Anian is clearly shown, and importantly the notion of a northwest passage between the Atlantic and the Pacific Oceans is reinforced by this view of the top of the world.  In the corners of the map are four roundels, the lower left of which contains the title of this map; the others contain maps of the Faeroe Isles, the Shetland Islands and the mythical island of Frisland (located on the map southwest of Iceland).

The North Pole is encompassed by four islands (one of which is only partially shown) separated by four strongly running rivers.  According to the popular myth of the time (4), the four rivers carried the oceans of the world toward a giant whirlpool at the Pole, where there stood a large rock, clearly shown here.

(4) Burden, Mapping of America, page 113.

NEXT MAP
PREVIOUS MAP

About

History
Board of Trustees
​Join Our Crew
Past QuarterDeck Issues
Volunteer
Accessibility
Brix Maritime Hall Aerial View
​
​
​


Community Links

​
​Campus Transformation
​

Contact Us

Privacy Policy
© COPYRIGHT 2020. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
  • Home
  • Visit
    • Accessibility
    • Current Exhibits
    • Lightship Columbia
    • 3D Theater
    • Warnock Model Boat Pond
    • Museum Gallery Map
    • What Our Visitors Are Saying
    • Upcoming Events
    • Online Exhibits
  • Education
    • Schools >
      • Miniboat Program >
        • Miniboats in the News
      • Field Trips >
        • Learning Labs
        • Group Visit
      • Museum in the Schools
      • Children of a Common River Poetry Contest
    • Adult Education >
      • Workshops
      • Group Visits
      • Lectures
      • Senior Enrichment Programs
      • Adult Carving & Weaving Clubs
    • Public Programming >
      • In the Community
      • In Museum Programming
      • Online Learning
  • Collections
    • Online Collections
  • Reference Library
  • Store
  • Join/Give
    • Individual/Family Memberships
    • Business Memberships
    • Planned Giving
    • Donate to Curatorial
    • Volunteer
    • Join Our Crew
  • Campus Transformation
  • Celebrating 50 Years of The QuarterDeck
  • MARINERS HALL PROJECT GOALS