U.S. Buys Oldest Map Marked “America”
Jonathan Haeber, National Geographic News, June 19, 2003
The first map known to have named the great landmass of the Western Hemisphere “America” has been acquired by the Library of Congress for ten million dollars. Described as “one of the greatest finds of the modern age” after it was lost for more than two centuries, the 1507 map of the entire world included data gathered by explorer Amerigo Vespucci.