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.

A. San Diego Entrance and Approaches California from a Trigonometrical Survey... (12.9 x 11.8"). An important, early San Diego nautical map. Two-thirds of the plate is taken up by a chart of Point Loma and part of North Island; the remainder is a sketch chart of the entire Bay plus approaches from as far south as the Coronado Islands. Sailing directions, light houses, soundings, and topographical features are illustrated and noted.

B. Preliminary Sketch of Santa Barbara California (16.7 x 13.6"). This chart provides excellent detail along the coast and inland to include individual city buildings in the street plan of Santa Barbara. Las Salinas, The Mission, the Observatory on the coast, and Point Castillo are located. At lower left is the profile "View of the Town and Mission of Santa Barbara" as seen from the sea. This is the only Coast Survey work done on Santa Barbara.

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Condition: B

Issued folding with the typical toning along the fold lines. The map of San Diego also has a few small fold separations that have been closed on verso with archival tape.