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Willamette Valley Sketch Map, 1851

By Finding aid prepared by Elizabeth Nielsen.

Collection Overview

Title: Willamette Valley Sketch Map, 1851

ID: MAPS WVSketch

Primary Creator: Gibbs, George (1815-1873)

Extent: 0.01 cubic feet. More info below.

Languages of Materials: English [eng]

Abstract

The Willamette Valley Sketch Map depicts purchases and reservations made by the Board of Commissioners with Native Americans in Oregon. The map was prepared by George Gibbs and Edmond A. Starling. Gibbs was a geologist and ethnologist who participated in treaty negotiations between the U.S. Government and native tribes. This collection consists of three reproductions of the original map, which is held in the National Archives.

Scope and Content Notes

The Willamette Valley Sketch Map consists of three reproductions of the manuscript map, Sketch of the Wallamette Valley: Showing the purchases and reservations made by the Board of Commissioners, appointed to treat with the Indians of Oregon, April and May 1851 prepared by George Gibbs and Edmond A. Starling. The map shows settlements, tribal lands, and rivers as well as vegetation and some individual land ownership.

The original map is held in the National Archives, and is downloadable. The original is 30.5 x 50 inches and has a scale of 4 miles to the inch. The 3 reproductions that comprise this collection vary in quality, but appear to have been made in the early 1970s. Two are about two-thirds of the original's size (23 x 35 inches) and the third is approximately half the size of the original (15 x 21 inches).

Biographical / Historical Notes

George Gibbs was a geologist and ethnologist who participated in treaty negotiations between the U.S. Government and native tribes because of his expertise on Native American customs and languages. A native of New York, Gibbs moved to Astoria, Oregon, in the 1840s and became a customs officer. He worked on the Northern Railroad Survey and the Northwest Boundary Survey in the 1850s and early 1860s. Gibbs spent the last decade of his life working at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C. Gibbs died in 1873.

Administrative Information

More Extent Information: 3 maps; 1 map folder

Statement on Access: Collection is open for research.

Acquisition Note: These materials were transferred from the Oregon State University Libraries' maps collection to the Special Collections & Archives Research Center in 2014.

Related Materials: Other 19th century maps of the Willamette Valley are available in the Willamette Valley Township Survey Plats (MAPS Township) and Historic Oregon Topographic Maps (MAPS ORTopos). The Native American Maps Collection (MAPS Native) includes other maps documenting native lands in Oregon.

Preferred Citation: Willamette Valley Sketch Map (MAPS WVSketch), Oregon State University Special Collections and Archives Research Center, Corvallis, Oregon.

Creators

Gibbs, George (1815-1873)
Starling, Edmund A.

People, Places, and Topics

Indian reservations--Oregon.
Indians of North America--Oregon.
Natural Resources
Oregon Multicultural Archives
Willamette River Valley (Or.)--Maps.

Forms of Material

Maps (documents)


Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.