Hochstetter's map

For volcanologists, the map of the ‘Isthmus of Auckland with its Extinct Volcanoes’ often credited to German scientist Ferdinand von Hochstetter in 1859 is a fascinating historical artefact.

It maps out volcanic craters, scoria cones and lava streams with Rangitoto in the top right corner.

Hochstetter arrived in New Zealand on the Austrian man-of-war His Majesty’s Frigate Novara. He was here for only nine months, but his geological and topographical survey resulted in Aotearoa New Zealand’s first atlas (published in 1864). Auckland City Library holds the original version and sometimes allow public viewings.

Hand-coloured 1859 map of the Auckland isthmus between the Waitematā and Manukau harbours, the volcanic cones and craters drawn in red and brown, lava flows in orange, and Rangitoto in the top right corner

Was it the amiable disposition of the inhabitants? Was it the ties of friendship, that I formed there? Or was it the grandeur and peculiarity of the natural features of a country, appearing in its isolation like a world of its own, that attracted me so strongly? I cannot say; but I still look back with enthusiasm to my stay in the Antipodes.

Ferdinand von Hochstetter, 1863.

Controversy

However, there is controversy about who drew the map. Charles Heaphy, the Provincial Surveyor of Auckland, accompanied Hochstetter on many of his travels around Auckland.

Based on the highly developed state of Heaphy’s 1859 manuscript map, today, authorship of Hochstetter’s published map would likely be given jointly to Hochstetter and Heaphy, with Hochstetter the senior author. Unfortunately, the long-term outcome of this controversy was predictable, and the two former friends never communicated again.

Charles Heaphy’s pale watercolour panorama of the North Shore volcanoes seen from the harbour, with his handwritten notes along the top
Charles Heaphy

Keep reading

More about this topic