The Western Hemisphere – The Waldseemueller Map (Published 1507)
This remarkable map showing the continents of North and South America was published before Ponce de Leon ‘discovered’ Florida: before Magellan reached Patagonia; before Vancouver landed in NW America; before Verrazzano arrived at New York; before Balboa reached the Pacific or the Amazon, or rivers of North and South America were discovered. In a nutshell fleets had charted some 25,000 miles of Atlantic, Caribbean, and Pacific coasts of the America’s before Europeans reached those parts.
Provenance
The authenticity of the chart and in particular that it was published in 1507 “has never been challenged and never will be” (Professor Carol Urness). The chart was purchased by the Library of Congress, Washington DC, in 2002. It is on view there.
View map: The Waldseemüller map
