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First map to name America on display at Library of Congress

gadling.com — Visitors to the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C., have a rare opportunity to see the first map that used the name "America" for the New World. The Library recently bought the only surviving copy of the famous Waldseemüller map, created in 1507 by Martin Waldseemüller, a German cartographer living in France.

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  • nerddtvg, on 11/03/2009, -0/+29Full map, which is really neat, but it is 13708x7590 and nearly 20M: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c0 ...
  • KJGJ, on 11/03/2009, -0/+15I like how America is about the size of Mexico. It's easy to laugh at now but I can't imagine how daunting that would've been to discover how much of the world was still unknown back then.
  • durkadurkajerka, on 11/03/2009, -1/+14America, ***** yeah!
  • jrm125, on 11/03/2009, -0/+10Fantastic piece of history. Amazing it's survived.
  • Booglysnot, on 11/03/2009, -0/+8Man, check out the size of that parrot! @_@

    Parrots sure were big back then...
  • catachip, on 11/03/2009, -0/+7Actually that is a huge myth. Explorers knew the Earth was a globe - they know it was a globe for hundreds of years before then. They thought they were going to sail to India, though, not a continent between Europe and India.
  • piieerrrree, on 11/03/2009, -0/+6Look at how puny America is!
    We would easily fit into Mother Russia!
  • confoundedjoe, on 11/03/2009, -0/+5It looks as if they drew it pointing to the fact that there was more beyond. If you look at the western edge of north america there are hills/mountains drawn in a sort of "horizon" style saying "this is what we saw over that way."
  • magamiako, on 11/03/2009, -1/+5Definitely going to go see this. I missed the Magna Carta when it was here in DC last year. Won't be missing this one.

    And to the comments of "it's amazing to see how little we knew"...I think the more amazing part about it is that modern civilization has been around for a few thousand years and it only took us the past 500 to know anything exists on this side of the planet. It's absolutely amazing when you think about that one.
  • themastersb, on 11/03/2009, -0/+3The next one will be even bigger.
  • SelfArchitect, on 11/03/2009, -0/+3who is the us you're referring to? Remember people were already living here for the past 16,000yrs(give or take). So it was only unknown/didn't exist to Europeans. There was no discovery. It's like the little kid who comes to your house and right before they leave they tell you they found something in your house and it now belongs to them.
  • RJ0534, on 11/03/2009, -0/+3Hey I was just browsing Digg and I found your comment. It is now mine. Thanks.
  • CJArgus, on 11/03/2009, -0/+2Here be dragons!
  • Dereliction, on 11/03/2009, -0/+2In Latin, objects often take the masculine or feminine form depending on the form an adjective takes in agreeing with that noun. If I'm not incorrect, this rule caused feminine gendering of names for geographical locations to become customary, in the same way that names and titles for ships (and later cars *grin*) are typically considered female as well.
  • sipsyrup, on 11/03/2009, -0/+2Hahaha, reminds me of dial up internets.
  • Dereliction, on 11/03/2009, -0/+2@ Catachip

    While you are most certainly right about the myth of a flat-earth to fall off being non-existent (certainly among the educated at least), there is an interesting point to take from djrbx. That is, imagine if we lived on a planet for which a substantial portion was literally unknown and temptingly rich in wealth and danger alike. What an exciting time to live (assuming you forget about all the religious strife, disease, famine, and other hardships that come with the era). At least to cultures known and common to your own.

    Few things could provoke the imagination as much as unexplored continents--continents reachable by man no less--in the same way we fancy distant yet hopefully reachable planets both in and out of our solar system today.
  • NetDancer, on 11/03/2009, -0/+2In fact the inscription on the western edge reads "Terra Ultra Incognita", that could be translated like "Unknown Land" or similar (sorry but my english & latin are not very good!).
  • KokomoNYC, on 11/03/2009, -4/+6Examining the first map alongside a modern satellite photo, Waldseemüller commented "Damn, what was I on?"
  • farfromsubtl, on 11/03/2009, -0/+2SCTV references are an auto-digg.
  • lexman098, on 11/03/2009, -0/+2That is the biggest jpeg I've ever seen.
  • DaviDTC, on 11/03/2009, -0/+2Damn you're old. You were part of the group of men who discovered the new land of America?
  • DaviDTC, on 11/03/2009, -0/+2Comcast isn't that strict, you'll be ok.
  • crossmr, on 11/03/2009, -0/+1apparently as soon as a fifth grader can find it on an unlabeled map they're going to put him on display too..
  • MikeyMoose, on 11/03/2009, -0/+1What did they name it?
  • KraftDinner101, on 11/03/2009, -0/+1Or think about the NEXT 500. We grow and evolve exponentially, not physically, but technologically. The amount of new data everyday from research and discovery is absolutely amazing.
  • quirkopatra, on 11/03/2009, -4/+5*jumps into wayback machine and reads comments*

    -The Native Americans were here first!
    -***** yeah...USA!
    -We stomped all the indigenous people!
    -I hate Amerigo Vespucci!
    -We should reclaim this country for the oppressed minorities!
    -Puritans Suck!
    -It's ours now....beeeyotch!
    -I am not an Athenian, nor a Greek, but a citizen of the world!
    -Are you ***** kidding me? The rich were here first and we all suffer!
    -Ayyyaaaaaaaaarg!
    -I kind of like it here.


    .....yeah, these comment suck!
  • themastersb, on 11/03/2009, -0/+1It's some form of Elvish. I can't read it.
  • junkneo, on 11/03/2009, -0/+1Why Latin feminine names for continents?
  • opticwind, on 11/04/2009, -0/+1Except it's more like a very big adult coming into a small person's tent and saying the tent is now their's.

    Hey, you don't have to like imperialism, but it's how things worked in the past.
  • quirkopatra, on 11/03/2009, -1/+2Secret large parrots WILL be your new rulers. Trust me on this.

    Can I have a cracker?
  • akchrs, on 11/03/2009, -2/+2Look at it closely. It is a map of the U.S.
  • djrbx, on 11/03/2009, -1/+1It was a great article. I don't know about you guys, but i got an eerie feeling down my back after reading it and seeing the pictures for the first time. Not because it's about America, but because I was those men who discovered new land and explored parts of the world, which at the time, was known to be the edge and that you would just fall off. It's amazing too see history made.
  • TiE23, on 11/03/2009, -1/+1Hmm, anyone else getting an error message about the image? The newest one and the composite version are both broken. Saving it to drive doesn't help, either.
  • akchrs, on 11/03/2009, -2/+1Dugg for not having the little map of Alaska out in the pacific.
  • quirkopatra, on 11/03/2009, -2/+1dugg
  • inactive, on 11/03/2009, -5/+1Yikes...no thanks.
  • inactive, on 11/03/2009, -4/+0Yeah.. :)
  • burrdugg, on 11/03/2009, -7/+1In before the geniuses who are going to confuse that for a map of the United States simply because it's named America.
  • dha07030, on 11/03/2009, -15/+1These comments suck.

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