1827 Vandermaelen map of the Society Islands and French Polynesia

This is the 1827 Vandermaelen map of the Society Islands, Tahiti, and French Polynesia. It summarizes the European discoveries leading up to, including, and following Captain Cook. It is the first lithographic map of these islands. It is here accompanied by an extensive French text describing the region and its recent history: the arrival of European missionaries, for example, the rise of the Põmara kingdom, and its change to constitutional monarchy. The region was still being actively explored in the 1820s, and this is reflected on the map.

Many Rediscoveries

The nature of trans-Pacific voyages during the age of discovery was such that islands found during one voyage would often go unconfirmed for more than a century. For example, a French Polynesian atoll here is marked according to the several European encounters, and the respective names applied to it. Le Maire and Schouten's 1616 visit is noted, with their name Vlieghen Eiland translated to the French I. Aux Mouches (Island of Flies). The map records John Byron's visit during his 1765 circumnavigation, during which he named the atoll after the Prince of Wales. A 1791 date notes the name change to Dean's Island. The indigenous name for this atoll, not noted on the map, is Rangiroa.

Publication History and Census

This map appeared in the sixth part, 'Océanique,' of Vandermaelen's Atlas universel de géographie physique, politique, statistique et minéralogique. The atlas was produced in one edition in 1827; only 810 complete sets were sold. The full set of six volumes appears in eleven institutional collections in OCLC, and the 6th volume alone is listed in 10, but the map is not independently cataloged.