Research branch · dated evidence

Maps

A chronological stream of original historical maps. Dates are primary here. Do not redraw an old map to make it fit The Living Realm. Show the original, record what it depicts, then set it beside the next one.

Seven period originals. Two later schematics, labeled as such. Nothing is corrected silently — Disturnell’s El Paso error stays on Disturnell; island California stays an island until a later plate draws a peninsula. Photographs of later cities are a different shelf. Photographic Breadcrumbs.

Sequence

06 / 10

Russian America

Posts from the Aleutians to Fort Ross. The California end of the Russian span.

What this plate depicts

Named Russian-period posts from Unalaska and Kodiak through Sitka (Novo-Arkhangelsk) and down the coast. Fort Ross sits at the southern end, in present-day Sonoma County, California (founded 1812, sold 1841). This image is a modern locator of those names. It is not the 1817 Russian naval chart of Fortress Ross to Bodega, and not Lindenkohl’s 1867 Coast Survey cession sheet. Record it as a finding-aid for the posts, then compare the California end with Disturnell (Mexico still drawn to the Pacific in 1847) and with the 1857 Coast Survey of the Bay.

Source: Wikimedia Commons file “Russian America Settlements Map.png” — a later schematic, not a Russian-period chart.
License: Used here as a labeled schematic. Not a substitute for an 1817 or 1867 original sheet.

Open plate

All plates

Year order. Open a plate, read what it depicts, then compare it with the next original.