Free Public Domain Historical Clipart

Image 9297 194 visits

The world as known to Herodotus is shown by the white part of this map, indicating the limited range of ancient geographical knowledge. 428 visits

The World as known to its first historian

Image 8692 293 visits

Image 8691 356 visits

Image 8690 269 visits

The first great navigational feat that followed the invention of the compass was that performed by the Portuguese, Bartholomew Dias, who conceived the idea of reaching India by going around Africa, and sailed down the west coast of Africa as far as its southern end, later called the Cape of Good Hope. It was a tremendous undertaking, and it had tremendous results; for it demonstrated the possibilities of great ocean voyages, proved that the road to India was very long, and led to the expedition of Columbus, six years later. It was also a great invention, both in brilliancy of conception and excellence of execution, although Dias did not reach India. The second great navigational feat was performed by Christopher Columbus in 1492. Before that time it was conceded by most men of learning and reflection that the earth was spherical; and it was realized that, if it was spherical, it might be possible by sailing to the westward to reach India, the goal of all commercial expeditions in that day. Columbus is not to be credited with the first conception of that possibility. 260 visits

The Pilgrims were familiar with Capt. John Smith’s account of a voyage in which he had surveyed the coast from Cape Cod to Penobscot Bay in 1614. He had even offered his services as guide and military captain, but Myles Standish got the job. Undoubtedly they did bring with them his Description of New England (London, 1616), in which the following map was published. Capt. Smith, who had already gained some fame and fortune in Virginia, dedicated to Prince Charles this effort in which the term “New England” first appeared: “... it being my chance to range some other parts of America, whereof I here present your highness the description in a map, my humble suit [in original, “sure”] is you would please to change their barbarous names for such English, as posterity may say Prince Charles was their godfather.” Several English place-names were incorporated in the map, but posterity disregarded most of them, a noteworthy exception being “Plimouth.” Smith notes that the Indians called the site “... Accomack, an excellent good harbor, good land, and no want of any thing but industrious people,” recalling that “After much kindness, upon a small occasion we fought also with 40 or 50 of those [Indians]; though some were hurt and some slain, yet within an hour after, they became friends.” 534 visits

Although the Pilgrims were the first Europeans to establish a permanent colony in northeastern North America, they did not come to an unknown land. As early as 1605, Samuel de Champlain had mapped Plymouth Harbor, in the course of a three-year expedition during which he explored the coast from Nova Scotia to Martha’s Vineyard. The quality of his detailed and accurate observations on the land and people appears in this map, and in his notes on the visit: “There came to us two or three canoes, which had just been fishing for cod and other fish which are found there in large numbers. These they catch with hooks made of a piece of wood, to which they attach a bone in the shape of a spear and fasten it very securely. The whole has a fang-shape, and the line attached to it is made out of the bark of a tree. They gave me one of their hooks, which I took out of curiosity. In it the bone was fastened on by hemp, like that in France, as it seemed to me, and they told me that they gathered this plant without being obliged to cultivate it, and indicated that it grew to the height of four or five feet. This canoe went back on shore to give notice to their fellow inhabitants, who caused columns of smoke to arise on our account. We saw eighteen or twenty savages, who came to the shore and began to dance. Our canoe landed in order to give them some bagatelles, at which they were greatly pleased. Some of them came to us and begged us to go to their river. We weighed anchor to do so, but were unable to enter on account of the small amount of water, it being low tide, and were accordingly obliged to anchor at the mouth. I went ashore, where I saw many others, who received us very cordially. I made also an examination of the river, but saw only an arm of water extending a short distance inland, where the land is only in part cleared. Running into this is merely a brook not deep enough for boats except at full tide. The circuit of the bay is about a league. On one side of the entrance to this bay there is a point which is almost an island, covered with wood, principally pines, and adjoins sandbanks, which are very extensive. On the other side, the land is high. There are two islets in this bay, which are not seen until one has entered, and around which it is almost entirely dry at low tide. This place is very conspicuous from the sea, for the coast is very low, excepting the cape at the entrance to the bay. We named it the Port du Cap. St. Louis...”. 385 visits

Samuel de Champlain’s Map of Plymouth Harbor

In Canada vast thicknesses of snow and ice accumulated until the weight of the ice finally caused it to flow slowly outward, mainly to the south. Rocks and surface materials of all types were picked up and carried by the glaciers for great distances before being deposited. Pieces of granite, quartzite, and native copper among the many local rocks and minerals are found in glacial deposits and indicate that at least part of these deposits came from the Great Lakes Region. The materials deposited range from clay-size minerals to large boulders. 354 visits

Extent of the main glacial advances which began with the Nebraskan (a—the oldest) and ended with the late Wisconsinan (f—the youngest). Diagram “d” shows the major stream development during the time between the Illinoian and the earliest Wisconsinan glaciers. The heavy lines on the diagrams indicate major stream valleys that were present during these times. a. Inferred limit of NEBRASKAN glaciation b. Inferred limit of KANSAN glaciation c. ILLINOIAN glacial advance d. SANGAMONIAN major drainage e. Maximum WISCONSINAN glacial advance f. Late WISCONSINAN Valparaiso front and Kankakee Flood 346 visits

Physiography is the study of the creation and gradual change of land surface forms (the landscape). Thus, the land surface as we see it today in each of the physiographic provinces has had a particular history of development. Driftless Area Wisconsinan Moraines Illinoian Till Plain Mississippi River Wabash River Shawnee Hills Ohio River 260 visits

AN EYE SKETCH of the FALLS of NIAGARA I.Weld del. Neele sculpt. London Published by J. Stockdale Piccadilly 16th. Novr. 1798. 453 visits

Qala'at El-Hosn 481 visits

Image 6560 385 visits

The First printed map of England 563 visits

Map showing the first settlements made on the Eastern coast of North America 1161 visits

Section of Frobisher's map of the world, 1576. Copied from Hakluyt. It shows what the English explorer thought America was. 782 visits

De Soto's Expedition 1539-1542 The outlines and names of states are given for convenience in tracing De Soto's course. 884 visits

Map of 1515, showing what some geographers then supposed North America to be. This is one of the earliest maps on which the name America occurs. It will be notices that at that time it was confined to South America. 884 visits

Correct chart of westward route from Europe to Asia, for comparison with the chart of Columbus 527 visits

The World as known shortly before the sailing of Columbus 585 visits

The plains were originally supposed to be seas: hence the name "Mare." 561 visits

A Map of the Chief Plains and Craters of the Moon

The Regions are given as they were laid out by Fiorelli, the boundaries being marked by broken lines. The Insulae are designated by Arabic numerals. Stabian Street, between Stabian and Vesuvius gates, separating Regions VIII, VII, and VI, from I, IX, and V, is often called Cardo, from analogy with the cardo maximus (the north and south line) of a Roman camp. Nola Street, leading from the Nola Gate, with its continuations (Strada della Fortuna, south of Insulae 10, 12, 13, and 14 of Region VI, and Strada della Terme, south of VI, 4, 6, 8), was for similar reasons designated as the Greater Decuman, Decumanus Maior; while the street running from the Water Gate to the Sarno Gate (Via Marina, Abbondanza Street, Strada dei Diadumeni) is called the Lesser Decuman, Decumanus Minor. The only Regions wholly excavated are VII and VIII; but only a small portion of Region VI remains covered. The towers of the city wall are designated by numbers, as they are supposed to have been at the time of the siege of Sulla, in 89 B.C. 984 visits

Map of the World as known to the Ancients 1088 visits

Battle of Resaca de la Palma 9th May 1846 1096 visits

Battle of Palo Alto 8th. May 1846 1205 visits

Map of France, corrected by order of the king Desborough Cooley in his "History of Voyages," says, "They deprived her (France) of several degrees of longitude in the length of her western coast, from Brittany to the Bay of Biscay. And in the same way retrenched about half a degree from Languedoc and La Provence." These alterations gave rise to a "bon-mot." Louis the XIV., in complimenting the Academicians upon their return, remarked, "I am sorry to see, gentlemen, that your journey has cost me a good part of my kingdom!" 469 visits

Baalbek (anc. Heliopolis), a town of the Buka‛a (Coelesyria), altitude 3850 ft., situated E. of the Litani and near the parting between its waters and those of the Asi. Pop. about 5000, including 2000 Metawali and 1000 Christians (Maronite and Orthodox). Since 1902 Baalbek has been connected by railway with Rayak (Rejak) on the Beirut-Damascus line, and since 1907 with Aleppo. It is famous for its temple ruins of the Roman period, before which we have no record of it, certain though it be that Heliopolis is a translation of an earlier native name, in which Baal was an element. 446 visits

There is no doubt whatever that Vespucci made a voyage in 1499-1500, along with Alonzo de Ojeda and the great pilot Juan[Pg 109] de la Cosa, but whether this may be styled his first or his second must be left to the intelligence of the reader, for the historians are at odds themselves, and it might seem presumptuous in the biographer to assume to decide. 1412 visits

In a pamphlet accompanying "the earliest known globe of Johann Schöner," made in 1515, the new region is described as the "fourth part of the globe named after its discoverer, Americus Vespucius, who found it in 1497." Vespucci did not find it, and he never made the claim that he discovered more than is given in his letters; but this misstatement by another caused him to be accused of falsifying the dates of his voyages in order to rob Columbus of his desserts. 1404 visits

North America from the globe of Johann Schöner

Routes of the discoverers 1389 visits

The United States in 1790 864 visits

It is worth while for the reader to compare the treaty maps we give with what we have called the natural political map of Europe. The new arrangements do approach this latter more closely than any previous system of boundaries. It may be a necessary preliminary to any satisfactory league of peoples, that each people should first be in something like complete possession of its own household. 1684 visits

The Moslem Empire 750 AD 1724 visits

Haroun-al-Raschid died in 809. At his death his great empire fell immediately into civil war and confusion, and the next great event of unusual importance in this region of the world comes two hundred years later when the Turks, under the chiefs of the great family of the Seljuks, poured southward out of Turkestan, and not only conquered the empire of Bagdad, but Asia Minor also. Coming from the northeast as they did, they were able to outflank the great barrier of the Taurus Mountains, which had hitherto held back the Moslems. They were still much the same people as those of whom Yuan Chwang gave us a glimpse four hundred years earlier, but now they were Moslems, and Moslems of the primitive type, men whom Abu Bekr would have welcomed to Islam. They caused a great revival of vigour in Islam, and they turned the minds of the Moslem world once more in the direction of a religious war against Christendom. 973 visits

The British Empire in 1815 consisted of the thinly populated coastal river and lake regions of Canada, and a great hinterland of wilderness in which the only settlements as yet were the fur-trading stations of the Hudson Bay Company, about a third of the Indian peninsula, under the rule of the East India Company, the coast districts of the Cape of Good Hope inhabited by blacks and rebellious-spirited Dutch settlers; a few trading stations on the coast of West Africa, the rock of Gibraltar, the island of Malta, Jamaica, a few minor slave-labour possessions in the West Indies, British Guiana in South America, and, on the other side of the world, two dumps for convicts at Botany Bay in Australia and in Tasmania. 617 visits

Overseas Empires of European Powers, 1914 1186 visits

Map of Europe, 1848-1871 1354 visits

France at the Close of the 10th Century 1252 visits

Europe, 500 A.D. 1337 visits

Europe in the Time of Charles V 1224 visits

Europe in 1714 1221 visits

Europe at the Fall of Constantinople 1338 visits

Europe at the Death of Charlemagne 1202 visits

Europe and Asia, 1200 1334 visits

Europe after the Congress of Vienna 1196 visits

England, 878 A.D 1216 visits

England, 640 A.D. 1168 visits

Empire of Timurlane 1318 visits

Empire of Otto the Great 1288 visits

Empire of Jengis Khan, 1227 1215 visits

Comparative Maps of Asia (a) as part of hemisphere (b) on Mercators projection to show relative sizes of Asiatic Russia and India in the two cases. 1862 visits