|
||
|
|
|
|
The Best Russian Mapping of Northern California.
Prepared at Sitka in 1848.
This chart, created in 1848 by Mikhail Dmitrievich Tebenkov in Novo Arkhangel'sk (present-day Sitka, Alaska), delineates the coast of northern California and southern Oregon from Heceta Head in the north to roughly Fort Bragg in the south. The chart includes three coastal views alongside a detailed inset of Humboldt Bay. This example is from the collection of Warren Heckrotte and bears a pencil inscription by him highlighting it as "A well known chart, & historically significant, because of inset map of Humboldt Bay."
During the mid-19th century, Russian presence in North America, particularly along the Pacific Northwest, was marked by extensive exploration and the establishment of trading posts and settlements, namely under the auspices of the Russian-American Company. The creation of this chart by Tebenkov, a notable figure in Russian maritime exploration, underscores the era's Russian efforts in charting and understanding these territories, reflecting the broader imperial ambitions and the scientific curiosity of the period. Tebenkov's work, especially his detailed attention to the coastal geography, contributed significantly to the navigational knowledge and the strategic understanding of this remote part of the world.
This example's lack of folds, as compared to the atlas version published in Tebenkov's Atlas sieverozapadnykh beregov Ameriki in 1852, suggests that this chart may have been separately issued.
Based on the working navigational and mathematical annotations on the map and in the margins, it appears that this example was used by a Russian vessel off the North American coast in the mid-19th century.
Rarity
OCLC identifies several copies of the atlas but finds just a single separate map at the University of California Berkeley, highlighting its lack of a plate number unlike the atlas versions.
Mikhail Dmitriyevich Tebenkov was a Russian hydrographer and vice admiral of the Imperial Russian Navy. From 1845 to 1850, he served as director of the Russian American Company and the governor of Russian America.
In 1821, Tebenkov graduated from the Naval Cadet Corps School. For the next three years, he served on different ships in the Baltic Sea. In 1824, Tebenkov was put in charge of logging for shipbuilding purposes near Narva.
In January 1825, he joined the Russian American Company, which led colonizing and trade efforts in North America. He would later command the company-owned brigantines Golovnin, Ryurik, Chichagov, and a sloop named Urup in 1826–1834. Tebenkov surveyed Norton Sound on behalf of the Imperial Russian Hydrographic Service in 1831 and was the first European to sight the bay that now bears his name. He surveyed Tebenkof Bay in 1833 before returning to St. Petersburg.
In 1835 Tebenkov sailed from Cronstadt back to Alaska via Cape Horn as commander of the Russian American Company's ship Elena. He arrived in Sitka in April 1836. Between 1845 and 1850, Tebenkov served as the director of the Russian American Company and the governor of Russian America.
Tebenkov was perhaps the most outstanding Russian surveyor of the time, dedicating much time and patient work to the improvement of charts of the Alaskan coast.
He is especially noted for having surveyed and mapped the still little-known coast of Alaska. His Atlas of the Northwest Coasts of America: from Bering Strait to Cape Corrientes and the Aleutian Islands was published in 1852 and contained 39 engraved maps. The 39 maps of this atlas were engraved at Sitka around 1849 by Kozma Terentev (or Terentief), an Alaskan-Russian creole man.
![[Charles Lindbergh - 1st Trans-Atlantic Flight - Printed on Linen]](https://storage.googleapis.com/raremaps/img/small/69233.jpg)
![[Southeastern Riverside County and Borrego Valley] Indio Special](https://storage.googleapis.com/raremaps/img/small/83488.jpg)
