A terrestrial map in this form is the "flat" version of a globe. Miniature representations of the earth in the form of globes and terrain models have a long history, and are well represented in the Geography and Map collections of the Library of Congress. The collection (out of 4.5 million items) includes more than three hundred terrestrial and celestial globes, armillary spheres, one hundred fifty globe gores (the paper segments used in the construction of globes), illustrations of globes, and treatises on globe construction and use.

The earliest surviving globes were produced in Germany. The division recently acquired an exact facsimile of the oldest extant European globe, which was made by Martin Behaim of Nuremberg in 1492. Germany was also the site of the construction of the division's rarest globe, which was produced in 1543 by the Cologne mathematician and geographer, Caspar Vopell. It consists of a small manuscript terrestrial globe housed within a series of eleven interlocking armillary rings which illustrates the rotation of the sun, moon, and stars in the Ptolemaic tradition.

America's first commercial globe maker, James Wilson (1763 - 1855), who was largely self-taught in geography and the techniques of engraving and globe construction, constructed his first globe in 1810, determined to produce globes that equaled those then being imported from England.

Globes were widely used as educational tools in nineteenth-century America and were more popular than their current representation in American museums and libraries would suggest. During the past decade, the Geography and Map Division has made a concerted effort to assemble a strong collection of globes produced by American manufacturers.

Rand McNally and Company became a preeminent publisher of maps and atlases in Chicago in the 1870s and 1880s, then ventured into globe making in the 1890s, and continues in business today.

The company was formed in 1856 in Chicago by William H. Rand. In 1864, Rand partnered with Andrew McNally to oversee printing of the Chicago Tribune. Their first geography-based product was the Western Railway Guide published in 1869.

The company opened a map department in 1872 and soon became, and has remained, the preeminent publisher of commercial maps in the United States. By 1880, they began printing maps and globes for schools.

Medium : 1 map on two sheets

Created/Published : 1891

Creator : Rand McNally and Company

Frame : Pecan w/ black out edge, gold inner edge, Size 22 x 221/2

Housed in the Geography and Map Division of the Library of Congress

Availability: Usually ships in one week

Product #: FR0105