- Title: Galveston Entrance Texas
- Author: A. D. Bache
- Date: 1853
- Medium: Hand-colored engraving
- Condition: Very Good Plus - margin loss in lower left
- Inches: 19 x 15 1/2 [Paper]
- Centimeters: 48.26 x 39.37 [Paper]
- Product ID: 102346
(Sketch I No. 3)
Galveston Entrance Texas
From a Trigonometrical Survey Under the direction of A. D. Bache Superintendent of the Survey of the Coast of the United States
Triangulation by R. H. Fauntleroy and J. S. Williams Assistants.
Topography by J. M. Wampler Sub-Asst.
Hydrography by the parties under the command of T. A. Craves & A. S. Baldwin Lieuts. U. S. Navy
Published in 1853
Scale 1/40,000
Map of the entrance to Galveston Bay, Texas showing the city of Galveston and part of the island, Pelican Island, Pelican Spit, and part of Bolivar Point. Includes data regarding currents, tides, and geographic coordinates, as well as instructions for sailors.
Surveyor, scientist, and pioneering oceanographer A. D. Bache (1806-1867) served as the 6th Superintendent of the U.S. Coast Survey. Born in Philadelphia, he came from a prominent political family, and was the great-grandson of Benjamin Franklin. Under his leadership, the Coast Survey’s operations grew significantly, expanding from nine to seventeen states as it surveyed the Gulf and West Coasts. Bache ran meticulous studies relating to ocean currents, tides, and the earth’s magnetic field, endeavors which provided in-depth knowledge about U.S. coastal geography. Thanks to Bache, the Coast Survey evolved into an immense resource for the U.S. government and one of the foremost scientific institutions in the country leading up to the Civil War.