-------- Original Message --------
Subject:        1768 Map depicting the Gulf Stream by Benjamin Franklin
Date:   Tue, 8 Jun 2010 11:31:33 -0400
From:   Redmond, Edward James <[log in to unmask]>
To:     'Maps, Air Photo, GIS Forum - Map Librarianship'
<[log in to unmask]>



With all the sad happenings in the Gulf of Mexico, there are a plethora
contempary maps depicting the forecasted extent of the "event".

An historic map related to the Gulf that some may not be aware of is
Benjamin Franklin's 1768 map of the Gulf Stream which can be found on
the Libray of Congress web site via
http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.gmd/g9112g.ct000753

Franklin's 1768 map can also be seen next to a modern map depicting the
approximate flow of the Gulf current around the Florida peniinsula via
the Library's "Places in The News" website:

http://www.loc.gov/today/placesinthenews/

Benjamin Franklin (1706 – 1790), one of America's founding fathers, is
credited with the discovery of the Gulf Stream, a strong ocean current
which flows north from the Gulf of Mexico along the Atlantic coast of
the United States, where it joins the Labrador Current and flows
eastward. In 1768 Benjamin Franklin and Timothy Folger produced the
first map depicting the Gulf Stream which was published the English firm
of Mount and Page. The Library of Congress holds one of the three extant
copies of this very rare map.

Benjamin Franklin. [Franklin-Folger Chart of the Gulf Stream],1768.
Printed map. G9112 .G8 1768 .F7 Vault). Geography and Map Division.
http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.gmd/g9112g.ct000753

Ed

Ed Redmond

Geography and Map Reference Specialist

Library of Congress