PBA Galleries

Includes:

• Diaz, Agustin. A Brief Report on the...Geographical Exploring Commission in Mexico. 14 pp. New Orleans, 1885.
• Memoria Presentada al Gobierno de Estado por el Jefe de la Comision Geografico Exploradora Coronel Julio Alvarado... 19 pp. San Luis Potosi, 1895.
• Alvarado, Julio. Geographical and Exploring Commission of the Mexican Republic: Catalogue of the Exhibits... 67 pp. (Some marginal ink annotations and corrections.) Mexico: 1895.
• Alvarado, Julio. Comision Geografico-Exploradora de la Republica Mexicana: Catalogo de les objets... 46 pp. Mexico: 1900.
• Alvarado, Julio. The Geographical and Exploring Commission of the Mexican Republic: Sketch of Its Organization and Labors. 23 pp. [Buffalo, NY: c.1900].

Together, 5 items bound together, original wrappers included.

Warren Heckrotte notes: "The origin, make-up, and work of the Geographical Exploration Commission is described in the pamphlets. The Comision Geografica-Explordora was established by a decree of December 13, 1877. It was directed to prepare a map of the Republic with all the scientific accuracy desirable. The region around the town of Puebla, southwest of Mexico City, was the first effort of the Comision. The surveying was done by astronomical determinations and triangulations. Between 1879 and 1882, the planned nine sheets for the area around Puebla, lithographed in Mexico City, were issued at a scale of 1:20,000. Elevations are shown by contour lines. The sheets were also issued as photographs, the maps reduced in scale to 1:50,000... The ultimate goal was to produce a map of the country at a scale of 1:100,000 in 1100 sheets. At the time the Comision closed shop in 1914, a little over 200 sheets had been completed."