Boston Bay, Massachusetts, Nautical Chart, 1776 (Image 1 of 2) (Raster Image)

This layer is a georeferenced raster image of the untitled, historic nautical chart: [A chart of Boston Bay] (sheet originally published in 1776). The map is [sheet 18] from the Atlantic Neptune atlas Vol. 3 : Charts of the coast and harbors of New England, from surveys taken by Samuel Holland and published by J.F.W. Des Barres, 1781. Scale [ca. 1:50,000]. This layer is image 1 of 2 total images of the two sheet source map, representing the western portion of the map. Covers Boston and surroundings and portion of Boston Harbor. The image is georeferenced to the surface of the earth and fit to the 'World Mercator' (WGS 84) projected coordinate system. All map collar information is also available as part of the raster image, including any inset maps, profiles, statistical tables, directories, text, illustrations, or other information associated with the principal map. This map shows coastal features such as harbors, inlets, rocks, channels, points, coves, shoals, islands, and more. Includes also selected land features such as cities and towns. Relief is shown by hachures; depths by soundings. This layer is part of a selection of digitally scanned and georeferenced historic maps from The Harvard Map Collection. The entire Atlantic Neptune atlas Vol. 3 : Charts of the coast and harbors of New England has been scanned and georeferenced as part of this selection.

Historic paper maps can provide an excellent view of the changes that have occurred in the cultural and physical landscape. The wide range of information provided on these maps make them useful in the study of historic geography, and urban and rural land use change. As this map has been georeferenced, it can be used in a GIS as a source or background layer in conjunction with other GIS data.

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The georeferenced raster is a faithfully reproduced digital image of the original source map. Some differences may be detected between the source graphic used and the raster image due to the RGB values assigned that particular color. The intent is to recreate those colors as near as possible. Data completeness for raster digital image files reflect content of the source graphic. Features may have been eliminated or generalized on the source graphic due to scale and legibility constraints The horizontal positional accuracy of a raster image is approximately the same as the accuracy of the published source map. The lack of a greater accuracy is largely the result of the inaccuracies with the original measurements and possible distortions in the original paper map document. There may also be errors introduced during the digitizing and georeferencing process. In most cases, however, errors in the raster image are small compared with sources of error in the original map graphic. The RMS error for this map is 238.19366 meters. This value describes how consistent the transformation is between the different control points (links). The RMS error is only an assessment of the accuracy of the transformation.

Microsoft Windows XP Version 5.1 (Build 2600) Service Pack 2; ESRI ArcCatalog 9.2.4.1420.

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