Press Releases

April 27, 2007

First Map to Use Name “America” to be Formally Presented to United States

Chancellor Angela Merkel Will Present the Waldseemüller Map to House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, Who Will Accept it on Behalf of the American People,
at Library of Congress on Monday, April 30

Chancellor Angela Merkel will formally hand over to the United States the 1507 map by German cartographer Martin Waldseemüller that was the first to assign the name “America” to the continent in a ceremony with House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer at the Library of Congress on Monday, April 30. Congressman Hoyer will accept this singular document on behalf of the American people and the Library of Congress, where it will become part of the Geography and Map Division.

The 1507 map of the world is often referred to as “America’s birth certificate.” The German Government, in an extraordinary exception and in recognition of the long and deep ties that bind Germany and the United States, allowed the Library of Congress to acquire the Waldseemüller map in 2001.

The map is composed of 12 separate panels that together measure more than 4 feet by 8 feet. It bears the title, Universalis cosmographia secunda Ptholemei traditionem et Americi Vespucci aliorum que lustrationes (“drawing of the whole earth following the tradition of Ptolemy and the travels of Amerigo Vespucci and others”).

Though descriptions of it were known, the actual Waldseemüller map remained missing for nearly 400 years until the single surviving copy was rediscovered in 1901 at Waldburg Castle in Wolfegg, Baden-Württemberg.

UNESCO added the Waldseemüller map to the Memory of the World Register in 2005.

In honor of the 500th anniversary of the Waldseemüller map, the German Federal Ministry of Finance issued a special set of stamps on April 12, 2007, celebrating the German cartographer and his most important work. A complete set of stamps displays the 12 sections of the map.

With Chancellor Merkel’s ceremonial presentation of the map to House Majority Leader Hoyer on April 30, the Waldseemüller map will officially belong to the continent whose birth certificate it symbolizes.

–Advisory–
For information on covering the Library of Congress event at 5 p.m. on Monday, please go to http://www.loc.gov/today/pr/2007/index.html or call the Library of Congress Public Affairs Office at 202-707-2905.

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