-------- Original Message --------
Subject:         National Library receives rare charts
Date:   Thu, 13 Aug 2009 17:58:13 +1000
From:   Martin Woods <[log in to unmask]>
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_http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2009/08/13/2654956.htm?section=entertainment_
<http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2009/08/13/2654956.htm?section=entertainment>

As mentioned in the above article, today the National Library of
Australia received a long term loan of four VOC charts from Mr Kerry
Stokes AO. The four items are vellum navigational charts, including one
with ship tracks associated with a known voyage. The charts will stay at
the Library for an indefinite period of time, and will be displayed in a
new permanent exhibition - Treasures Gallery - that opens in 2011.

The particular charts came to light in the 1980s, through the collector
Nico Israel of Amsterdam, and re-emerged in 2007. Three of the charts
were drawn in 1735 by Isaak de Graaf, official cartographer of the VOC,
and another was drawn about the same time in the cartographic workshops
of Batavia, the centre of Dutch trade and exploration in the East.

Three of the charts were used for voyages to the East Indies, and one of
these has been associated with a known voyage, namely the /Diemermeer/
(1744-45), thanks to remnant pencil tracks (which sheds light on
longitudinal difficulties facing these voyages). Together with a
detailed chart of the Netherlands ports, another of the Indian Ocean
(including western and northern Australia), plus a chart of the Dutch
bases in Java and Borneo (drawn in the Batavian workshops), these charts
provide a unique set of discovery documents for Australia and the
region, and illustrate the VOC experience from home country to colony.

The charts will undergo a specialised process of mounting for display,
and in the meantime are online on the Library's catalogue. The images
are zoomable for details.

_http://nla.gov.au/nla.map-vn4601792_ <http://nla.gov.au/nla.map-vn4601792>
_http://nla.gov.au/nla.map-vn4601455_ <http://nla.gov.au/nla.map-vn4601455>
_http://nla.gov.au/nla.map-vn4601670_ <http://nla.gov.au/nla.map-vn4601670>
_http://nla.gov.au/nla.map-vn4601302_ <http://nla.gov.au/nla.map-vn4601302>

Martin

Dr Martin Woods, Curator of Maps
National Library of Australia
Ph: +61 2 6262 1280
Fax: +61 2 6262 1653
[log in to unmask] <mailto:[log in to unmask]>
_http://www.nla.gov.au/map/index.html_
<http://www.nla.gov.au/map/index.html>