First map of `America' coming home 6
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--> --> First map of `America' coming home WASHINGTON (AP) - The first map to use the name America is coming to the Library of Congress. It is buying the 494-year-old chart for $10 million. "This map, giving our hemisphere its name for the first time, will be the crown jewel of the library's already unparalleled collection of maps an atlases," said James H. Billington, the librarian of Congress. Sometimes called America's birth certificate, it's the only known copy of a map that historians say caused the hemisphere to be named for explorer Amerigo Vespucci instead of Columbus. It was also the first map to depict a separate western hemisphere and a separate Pacific Ocean. The library said a $500,000 down payment has been made to the owner, German Prince Johannes Waldburg-Wolfegg, in whose south German castle it was found in 1901. Historians had long thought it had been lost. It will be on permanent display in the library's Thomas Jefferson Building. Email your... Technical questions & comments to: WebMaster Daily Tidings editorial comments & questions to: Editor Visit our other Oregon Newspapers... | Albany Democrat-Herald | Ashland Daily Tidings | Corvallis Gazette-Times | | Lebanon Express | Newport News-Times | Springfield News | Cottage Grove Sentinel | Ashland Daily Tidings 1661 Siskiyou Blvd. Ashland, OR 97520 Telephone 541-482-3456 © Copyright 2001 Lee Northwest Publishing