Don Homuth, a former North Dakota state senator and current resident of Salem, Oregon, will donate the sole complete copy of the Map of a Square and Stationary Earth by Orlando Ferguson to the Library of Congress. Homuth was given the map by his eighth-grade English teacher John Hildreth who had received it from his grandfather. He didn’t realize it was the only one left intact until he contacted the LoC to arrange for the donation.
Robert Morris, senior technical information specialist in the Geography and Map Division of the Library of Congress, said they searched through 75 to 100 related maps before confirming they didn’t have a similar map in its collections.
“Probably very few copies were printed, and even fewer survived,” he said. […]
“For years and years I had it folded away,” [Don Homuth] said. “It was a shock to hear it may be the only (map of its kind) in the world.”
The only other copy known to exist is in the Pioneer Museum of Hot Springs, South Dakota, Ferguson’s home town and the city where the map was first printed in 1893 (the same year the building that now houses the museum was built as a school). The museum’s copy, however, is missing the bottom of the map and footer [Edit: No it isn’t! The Pioneer Museum’s map is almost intact, but its left and right sides appears to have been trimmed and it’s in overall poor condition] with Bible verses condemning “the globe theory” and the following irresistible offer from Prof. Orlando Ferguson:
Send 25 Cents to the Author, Prof. Orlando Ferguson, for a book explaining this Square and Stationary Earth. It Knocks the Globe Theory Clean Out. It will Teach You How to Foretell Eclipses. It is Worth Its Weight in Gold.
I have searched high and low but cannot, alas, find a copy of this most excellent book on the Internet. I can’t even find a quote from it, and I’d dearly love to read the explanation of how Ferguson’s earth is supposed to work. Just from looking at it you see that Ferguson espoused not just a flat earth, but a square earth with angels manning each of the four corners; however, the only explanations on the map itself are Biblical rebuttals of a spherical earth (the most adorable of which is a cartoon in the upper right margin depicting men clinging desperately to a swiftly moving globe), not affirmative defenses of Ferguson’s map.
It seems a less than fully honest rendering of the quadri-cornered earth concept. The earth itself, the continents and oceans, are arranged in a circle and only set against a square framework. The northern hemisphere is a convex mound in the middle of a concave bowl of the southern hemisphere, presumably a structure that solves the problem of why the oceans don’t fall off the edge of the flat earth like in that atrocious Pirates of the Caribbean sequel. Of course now there’s a whole new problem: how do you persuade the oceans to properly position themselves up the sides of the bowl to keep sub-Saharan Africa, Australia and South America from being constantly under water?
I am astonished that the Texas Department of Education didn’t snap it up and then nail down the rights (immediate and derivative). Who – by the way – died and made Orlando Ferguson “Professor”? Inquiring minds want to know…
Hey, he clearly professes things. He professes things all over that map!
If be “profess” you mean “ejaculate”, and by “things” you mean “insanity”; then yes, he clearly does profess things ALL OVER this map.
I was expecting the map to be over 500 years old, before galileo’s tribulations and misfortunes. I can’t believe someone from the 19th century still believed in a flat Earth. And it was a professor??? Where did he get his education??? I wonder if his students gave him grief for it.
Assuming your substitutions, I, for one, am relieved that it’s only his insanity staining that poor, innocent map.
I tried to find more information about Ferguson but he’s just plain obscure. That “Professor” title could have been purchased or invented, so I wouldn’t assume he taught anyone anything.
There was a bit of a revival of flat eartherism in the second half of the 19th century. A variety of different religious sects and individuals who deemed themselves “Biblical astronomers” promoted some version of the idea.
Okay, fess up. Who else wants an elegant woodcarving of this map?
:yes:
Oh. Mah. God. Me! I do! With different kinds of wood inlays for each continent! And some kind of wee men to move around! :boogie:
I could almost buy the concept of a bowl shaped Earth but draw the line at the notion that Orlando Ferguson is a giant disembodied head and shoulders floating in the void. That’s just absurd.
The bowl shaped Earth is the only thing keeping the giant disembodied head from getting barreled over by the flying globe with the little guys pushing it. Unless it bounces off like a billiards combo.
Or maybe the bowl shaped Earth is the only thing stopping MegaOrlando from eating the little globe pushers. nom nom nom.
That would make a great animation.
Terry Gilliam needs to get on that stat.
To be fair, all of the Professor’s own words only seem to profess a square Earth, not a “flat” Earth; that word appears to come only from the article author.
What!?!? No turtle’s underneath! Blasphemy!
That’s because philosophically square earthers are a subset of flat earthers. Even the flat earthers who assume a disk give it some depth, after all. The world is still 3D.
The distinction between plane and disk models blur at the edges anyway. Ferguson is really operating on a disk model too. He just front by slapping corners outside of the world, and he cheats by not making the corners the cardinal points.
Give him a break. The man had a pamphlet worth its weight in gold to sell! The turtles are assumed.
Ooh… do you know what the rights are for that image? That would make a great contribution to Wikipedia.
The pamphlet you’re looking for might be this:
The Square world : why people are being deceived on astronomy and religion.
Author: Orlando Ferguson
Publisher: Hot Springs [S.D.] : O. Ferguson, 1897.
Edition/Format: Book : English
It is listed at http://www.worldcat.com. The only library that seems to have a copy is University of California Riverside. You could arrange to see it via Interlibrary Loan from your local public library. You’re right it does not seem to be on the web – not all human knowledge has of yet been scanned in. 🙂
The publication date is 4 years after the map, I notice, so it could be a later elaboration of his theories rather than the original pamphlet.
Still, you have inspired me. I will attempt to secure this book via Interlibrary Loan and scan it myself. Thank you for looking it up. :thanks:
Here is a bit of family history for Orlando Ferguson:
“Orlando Ferguson and his family moved from southern Illinois to Howard, S.D. in 1880, where he was a practicing physician. Mrs. Ferguson was born, Margaret Ellen Douglas, October 7, 1856 at Baldwin, Orlando were married March 30, 1872.
After living in Howard several years they joined a caravan coming to the Black Hills. They traveled by covered wagon and when they came to the Missouri river at Pierre they had to camp for several weeks as the river was up and they could not ferry across. They first settled in the upper hills then moved to Hot Springs in June 1886. WHen the Catholican bathhouse was built Dr. Ferguson managed it for a Mr. Hungerford, one of the owners. He managed this bathhouse for several years then built his own bathhouse, known as the Siloam, which he and Mrs. Ferguson ran until about 1911. Dr. Ferguson always contended that the world was square and became known as Square World Ferguson.
To this union were born seven children: Olla, who married Lary Highley, William, Dee, Loyd, Harvey and Marie, who married George Battersby. A son John died in infancy. All of the family are buried in Evergreen Cemetery [in Hot Springs, SD] with the exception of William and Dee who are buried at St. Ausustine, Fl.”
I’ve taken a bit of interest in this story as I have a third copy that hangs on my living room wall.
EG:
Most Texans would prefer a map like this one. Of course other folks have their own maps.
Nobody needed to die for that “professor” title. Even though I’m but a lowly Lecturer, every year I participate in graduation ceremonies, my school graciously dubs me “professor” in the program. Somehow, it never shows up in the paycheck, though… 👿
Hey, I also have one. It’s hanging on my wall also and I am looking at it as I write this!
Jeff, do you have more history of Hot Springs SD? I am interested because that is where my grandfather was born and raised. Oral SD which is a community just south of Hot Springs was named after my grandfather. I have struggled getting more information about his parents and would be interested in learning more.
Thank you for the information about Orlando Ferguson.
Jeanie,
I am from Oral!!! Email me at jspeaect@yahoo.com and I will be in contact!
Okay this is now officially the best History Blog comment thread ever. Fantastic information from a family member, two more versions of the map, and an Oral reunion. :notworthy:
Salvar, the image is courtesy of Don Homuth himself who posted it to the letters section of a flat earth parody site.
Jeff, thank you so much for posting your family history. Does the Professor title spring from his having been a doctor, do you know? Were the bathhouses in Hot Springs like health spas? I assume they weren’t just simple “take a bath and use the outhouse for a dime” outfits, given the medicinal reputation hot springs had back then, and still have today, for that matter.
Is your copy of the map complete and is it an 1873 original printing? You wouldn’t happen to have the pamphlet too, would you?
Mike, 😆 @ both those maps. I’m partial to the ancient Roman ones where the world is composed of the Empire and a few stubborn outliers best not delved upon.
I’m sure you profess all kinds of things in your lectures. You need to start a Local 41 Lecturers-and-other-almost-Professors-who-get-the-title-on-graduation-day-but-not-the paycheck. A people! United! Can never be defeated!
You are welcome, but just to be clear, I am not related to Mr. Ferguson, just relayed a bit of his family history. Not sure were the “professor” bit comes into play.
In regard to the bathhouses – the were for medicinal purposes. The naturally warm mineral waters have been used for centuries in the Hot Springs area.
My copy of the map is an original that I found in my grandparents trunk in a barn years back. Mr. Homuth’s map is in a little better condition than mine, but the map is complete and in much better condition than the other that I have seen. It is quite beautiful in person…the original coloring is quite nice.
How absolutely dreamy. I would love to have such a beautiful and quirky map on my wall. You and Jeanie should get together and have a map playdate. Two of them in the same room would be cause for celebration indeed.
I feel compelled to reveal that I am also not related to Professor Ferguson.