Page 12 - Citing Primary News Today

French cartographer Guillaume de L'Isle (1675-1726) was admitted into the Royal Academy of Sciences when he was 27 years old and subsequently became the first person to receive the title Premier Géographe du Roi (principal geographer to the king). He was one of the most important cartographers of the early 18th century and a major figure in making Paris a center of cartographic science. At the time de L'Isle was engaged in cartographic research, the prestige of a cartographer and the a...

This print showing a battle scene with combat in the foreground and explosions in the background is from the collection of World War I lubok posters held at the British Library. The caption explains: "On August 21, at 11:00 a.m., the victorious army of General Nikolai Ruzsky captured L'viv, the capital of Galicia [in present-day Ukraine]. The capture of the city was preceded by eight days of incessant battles, during which we took 4,000 Austrian prisoners, a few banners, machine guns, a...

This watercolor by Henry Price (1819--63) shows campesinos with their horses, in the foreground, at a small village in the Andean highlands Province of Mariquita (present-day Tolima Department, Colombia), about 130 kilometers northwest of Bogotá. In the distance at left is the Nevado del Tolima, an active volcano. To the right is another volcano, the Mesa de Herveo (also called Nevado del Ruiz). Price was a British painter and musician who was one of the draftsmen of the Comisión Corográfi...

At the time of the First World War, the children's book Struwwelpeter (Shock-headed Peter) was a familiar nursery classic in both Germany and Britain. In this British wartime parody, the original cautionary tales of naughty children and their fates are all turned against Kaiser Wilhelm of Germany. The "shock-headed Peter" of the title poem becomes "swollen-headed William," while "fidgety Phil," whose dinnertime antics knock over the table and ruin the food, beco...

This map, published in Rome in 1927, shows the locations of the Franciscan missions around the world in 1926. Each mission is marked on the map, and a numbered key is used to provide the name and area of geographic responsibility of the mission. Symbols indicate the type of mission and the rank of its leading prelate. The areas of historical mission activity are shown by shading. The map is in Italian, with the title banner in Latin: In omnem terram exivit sonvs eorum et in fines orbis terrae ve...

This hand-colored engraving of the Dutch colonial capital of Batavia (present-day Jakarta) was created by Jan Van Ryne in 1754. Van Ryne was born in the Netherlands, but spent most of his working life in London, where he specialized in producing engravings of scenes from the British and Dutch colonies. Located at the mouth of the Ciliwung River, Jakarta was the site of a settlement and port possibly going back as far as the fifth century A.D. In 1619, the Dutch captured and razed the existing ci...

In 1874-75, the Russian government sent a research and trading mission to China to seek out new overland routes to the Chinese market, report on prospects for increased commerce and locations for consulates and factories, and gather information about the Dungan Revolt then raging in parts of western China. Led by Lieutenant Colonel Iulian A. Sosnovskii of the army General Staff, the nine-man mission included a topographer, Captain Matusovskii; a scientific officer, Dr. Pavel Iakovlevich Piasetsk...

Documentos historicos relativos a la fundacion de la Republica de Panama (Historical documents relating to the establishment of the Republic of Panama) is a compilation of documents published in Panama in 1904, shortly after the province of Panama declared its independence from Colombia. In January 1903 the representative of the Colombian government in Washington, Tomás Herrán, and the United States secretary of state, John Hay, signed a treaty giving the United States the right to build a c...

Abu Abdullah Muhammad Ibn Battuta, better known simply as Ibn Battuta (1304--circa 1377 AD) was a Berber Muslim scholar and traveler, who was born in Tangier, Morocco. He is considered one of the greatest travelers of all time, and is well known for the account of his travels and excursions. The full title of the book of his journeys is Tuhfat al-anzar fi gharaaib al-amsar wa ajaaib al-asfar (A gift to those who contemplate the wonders of cities and the marvels of traveling), but it is commonly ...

This watercolor by Manuel María Paz (1820-1902) shows the different methods of fishing employed by people in Casanare Province (present-day Casanare Department), Colombia. The man identified as a mulatto has caught a large fish with a hook and line, while the Indian uses a bow and arrow. Another man in the background uses a fishing rod. The watercolor is typical of Paz's work, which captured the diversity of the population of Colombia and depicted the daily activities and traditional custo...