The Annotated Map. At last!
As many of you know, we first heard of maps annotated by John Rae when an Admiralty chart came up at auction in April 2024. Annoyed by the attribution of the surveying of Victoria Island to Captain Collinson, Rae had marked on the chart the surveys he himself had completed in 1851. His complaints about the lack of acknowledgement of his work began at the time of the publication of the chart in 1855 and continued until the 1890s.
Despite heroic efforts from the Society’s members to raise funds, our bid was unsuccessful and the chart was purchased by a private collector. But during the correspondence that followed it transpired there was different map, extensively annotated by Rae. This one is in the Rauner Collection at Dartmouth College, Hanover, USA and had been shown to Professor Astrid Ogilvie on her visit to the college in 2018. We were alerted to its existence by Professor Richard Nelmes for whom Professor Ogilvie had procured a copy for his work on crystallography.
Prompted by Professor Ogilvie, Dartmouth College generously gave the John Rae Society a copy of the map and permission to use it when suitably acknowledged.
The map is a circumpolar map of 1878, given by Rae to US army Captain P.H. Ray in 1884 who had participated in an international polar expedition to Point Barrow in Alaska in 1881. As well as marking surveys made by Rae and other Hudson’s Bay employees, it notes the ‘chief Arctic worthies’ from 1497.
Since then, we have discovered that at least one other annotated map existed, given to the American Geological Society by Rae in 1891. There may have been others!
We have been given a high-resolution copy, but this has proved problematic for our website and after lengthy discussion we have decided to put a 25% image on the website. Anyone wishing to obtain a copy of a high-resolution image should apply to Rauner.Special.Collections.Reference@dartmouth.edu who are willing to supply copies.
Please note: any use should be acknowledged as Courtesy Dartmouth Libraries.
