[Congressional Record Volume 153, Number 72 (Thursday, May 3, 2007)]
[Senate]
[Page S5558]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




         THE SYMBOLC TRANSFER OF THE HISTORIC WALDSEEMULLER MAP

  Mrs. FEINSTEIN. Mr. President, as chairman of the Joint Committee on 
the Library, I want to take this opportunity to recognize the symbolic 
handover of the historic 1507 Martin Waldseemiller Map from German 
Chancellor Angela Merkel to the American people. This event took place 
Monday at the Library of Congress.
  The map is often referred to as ``America's birth certificate.'' It 
was designed and printed by Martin Waldseemiller, a 16th century 
scholar and cartographer who worked in France. This mapmaker departed 
from accepted knowledge of the world at that time. He portrayed, in 
remarkably accurate fashion, the Western Hemisphere separating two huge 
and separate bodies of water, the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans.
  There were 1,000 copies of the map printed from woodcuts, but only a 
single surviving copy exists today. The Library of Congress worked for 
decades to acquire this map from its owners. The map was housed for 
more than 350 years in the 16th century castle belonging to the family 
of Prince Johannes Waldburg-Wolfegg in southern Germany. The map was 
long thought lost, but it was rediscovered in storage in the castle in 
1901.
  In 1992, knowing of the Library's great interest in acquiring the 
map, Prince Waldburg-Wolfegg notified the Library that the German 
national government and the Baden-Wurttemberg state government had 
granted an export license. This license permitted the map, which is 
considered a German national treasure, to come to the Library of 
Congress.
  The purchase of the map was accomplished through a combination of 
appropriated funds and matching private funds. Congress has played an 
important role in making this acquisition possible, as it has 
throughout the Library's history. Congress's first major purchase was 
Thomas Jefferson's library, which is the seed of the vast collections 
the Library holds today. Another once-in-a-lifetime purchase made 
possible by congressional support is the Gutenberg Bible, which is on 
display in the Jefferson Building.
  The Library will begin displaying the map to the public in the Thomas 
Jefferson Building later this year. The map will be part of the 
Library's new visitor's experience. As an important acquisition to the 
Library's treasures, the map will be on view for limited periods of 
time as preservation standards permit.

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