The Office of Coast Survey is the oldest U.S. scientific organization, dating from 1807 when Congress directed that a "survey of the coast" be carried out. By 1836, it was called the U.S. Coast Survey and in 1878, the name was changed to the U.S. Coast and Geodetic Survey. Today the Office of Coast Survey is a division of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration NOAA.

The survey teams, composed of civilians as well as Army and Naval officers, charted the nation's waterways and produced a wide array of reports, survey charts, hydrographic studies of tides and currents, astronomical studies and observations, and coastal pilots. These charts are an important record of the changing nature of the nation's coastlines. In additional to coastal charts, the U.S. Coast and Geodetic Survey produced land sketches, Civil War battle maps, and the early aeronautical charts.

This is one of the finest charts produced by the Coast Survey, fully and beautifully engraved with as much detail on land as along the coastline. The chart is filled with hundreds of soundings, plus anchorages, hazards, bottom type, and tables of buoys, light houses, and tides. The inland detail including roads, houses, fields, villages and railroads is truly remarkable. Lengthy notes provide sailing directions. Along the bottom are seven sea-view elevations showing the land from various approaches. This is the revised edition of 1863 chart from the original 1857 publication.

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Condition: C+

Folding as issued. The map itself is for the most part very good and was unopened. But the paper is tender along the upper toned fold with a long split at left. Should be professionally backed for support and to preserve this historical chart.