How the Hotchkiss family fought over his maps, now in the Library of Congress
- January 9. <
http://www.newsleader.com/article/20100109/LIFESTYLE22/1090310 > 'Hotchkiss maps nearly escaped
preservation' (by Charles Culbertson in the [Central Shenandoah Valley] Newsleader.com).
'Today, it is possible to visit the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C., and explore one
of the greatest historical finds of the 20th century - the Civil War maps of Jedediah Hotchkiss, "Stonewall"
Jackson's cartographer. For years after Hotchkiss's death in Staunton in 1899, the maps that had helped
Jackson and Lee achieve some of their greatest battlefield victories languished in a vault in his East
Beverley Street home and very nearly escaped preservation. The story of how they made their way from The
Oaks to the Library of Congress is labyrinthine and centers largely on the efforts of a single man. Charles
Vernon Eddy (1877-1963), a Winchester librarian, historian and collector of rare books and manuscripts,
recognized the historical value of Hotchkiss's maps and papers and relentlessly pursued their donation to
the nation's library ...'
The tangled story of how the 'Library came into possession of 475 maps as well as
20,000 other items', which runs from 1920 to 1948 and involved several (often warring) members of the
Hotchkiss family, is well told here. It is fully chronicled in the '1989 Winchester- Frederick County
Historical Society "Journal," volume 4.' The maps are available online.
New Year's honour for Alan Godrey, publisher of Ordnance Survey facsimiles
-
January 7. < http://www.thenorthernecho.co.uk/news/4838017.Unsung_heroes_off_to_meet_the_Queen/ >
'David Thompson, governor of top security Frankland Jail and Alan Godfrey, publisher of old maps receive
honours' (by Bruce Unwin in the Northern Echo).
'Alan Godfrey, a successful
publisher of old maps, was made an MBE in last week’s Queen’s awards ... Mr Godfrey, a lifelong lover of
maps, made it his profession in 1981, when he began publishing old Ordnance Survey maps, no longer covered
by copyright. The Tyneside-born former actor and school peripatetic music and drama teacher, has now
researched and produced 2,300 maps, covering the UK, and begins preparation of his first German pre-war
maps, next week. He said more than 50 per cent of his business is down to the family history boom, with
London’s East End and parts of Liverpool the most popular. Mr Godfrey, 66, of Holmside, near Sacriston,
County Durham, moved the business to Leadgate in 2000.'
