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?
Your denial only confirms what we all suspected, Prof. edahstip.
Wouldn’t that be Ross. edahstip?
It looks like Orlando Ferguson may have been an actual professor.
The Square world : why people are being deceived on astronomy and religion
“Lecture by Orlando Ferguson, delivered at Peterson’s Grove, Sept. 20, 1896”–P. [1].
Contents: Our 2,520 years of blindness
— We Americans are not Jews nor Gentiles, but part of the lost tribe of Israel
— We are to go back to Palestine and build up Jerusalem
— The pyramids of Egypt
— The dark ages and the beast
— Divine healing
— Which is the right church
— The square and stationary world
— How to foretell eclipses.
Hi All, I’m this year’s president of the Fall River Historical Society – who operates the Pioneer Museum. We’re all having fun with this. One note, though – the copy in the museum is in poor shape, but it is complete with Bible verses and the “irresistable offer.”
I’m not sure the lecture confers legitimate professorial status. What was Peterson’s Grove, do you know? Google was not helpful since it’s a place name.
What a pleasure to have you posting on this comment thread. 🙂 I’ve edited my entry to include your correction. Thank you kindly.
So do y’all happen to have the elusive pamphlet too?
I have a large (65 Mb) scan of the map on disc that I had done when the map was professionally archived and conserved. If someone would be willing to help me recover the cost of having it digitized, I’d be willing to make a disc available for US$10.00 plus S&H. Certainly the total would be no more than US$15 or so. (I had one done about 5-6 years ago for a shirt-tail relative of Ferguson’s in Hoxie, Arkansas, but I understand she has since died.) It prints out full-size in true color and high resolution – 31.25 x 21.25.
It pleases me that folks are enthusiastic about this image. It also pleases me to know that the bottom portion of the one in the museum is Not gone. The images on the web have not shown that. It’s good to know.
My copy however is in really good condition, considering that it was printed on tissue paper and is 118 years old. It is so brittle that it breaks if it’s handled. Which is why my wife and I want it to go to the LOC.
If the book should show up, I would be More than pleased to ensure that it also gets to the Library of Congress. The map and the book really ought to be together after all these years.
Don, I would be honored to remunerate you for the digitization. Please email me using the contact form and we’ll make arrangements.
Thank you for commenting. I find it thrilling to see the great response the map has received, and I’m just a bystander.
For all the fun folks have been having, here’s something spooky to add to the discussion:
http://www.landoverbaptist.net/showthread.php?p=767354
You’ve heard from these folks before, but not on something like this.
Be afraid! Be very afraid.
Hi Jeanie,
Please contact me. I live at Oral, SD.
Landover Baptist is a parody site. 🙂 It’s not spooky.
I thought he was just playing along.
I had my leg thoroughly pulled, as I found out this morning. The joke is on me, and I’ll get back at the guy who did it, I promise.
Yeah — it’s a parody. And a Very good one!
The Pioneer Museum has a photo-copy of the pamphlet — and the Hot Springs Public Library has an original (the only original that I know of). The pamphlet was printed in 1891 following a series of lectures delivered by the “Professor” at the Morris Opera house. Professor Ferguson had a design for the map at that time and included it in his pamphlet, but it seems that he didn’t get around to printing the map itself until 1893.
I am fairly certain that the Professor was not a real “professor” in any academic sense of the word, but he did “profess” to know the truth.
It is less certain regarding his standing as a physician. When you look at online reports, he was often called a physician, but I have not seen any record of his having graduated from any medical school. On the other hand, he did own (at different times) several “medicinal” bath houses, and his obit, while not mentioning physician, does refer to him as “Dr.” The following is a copy of the Professor’s Obit from the Hot Springs Star 1911:
“Orlando Ferguson – After two years of sickness and suffering, Orlando F. Ferguson quietly and peacefully passed away at the home of his daughter, Mrs. L. S. Highley, in lower town, Friday noon, February 3, 1911.
Orlando Ferguson was born near Duquoin, Il. Nov 6, 1846, being a few months more that 64 years old. He spent his childhood and early life in that state. In 1872 he was married to Margret Douglas at Baldwin, IL. Mrs. Ferguson and six children, Will, Olla, Dee, Lloyd, Harvey and Marie survive him. With his family he came into Dakota in the early 80.s, first living at Canova and afterwards at Howard. In 1886 he came to the Black Hills, driving across by the Pierre route, and decided to cast his lot in Hot Springs. After a few years in the grocery business he bought the present site of the Catholicon and Siloam Springs and built the Catholicon Hotel moving his family into what is now the family home. Suffering the loss of the Catholicon property by fire, which had made famous, in 1893 he turned his attention to the building of the Siloam Springs and Sanitarium. Being always downhearted over his Catholicon loss he longed for different places in which he thought he might meet with success and went to Thermopolis, WY and later finally settled at San Diego, Ca. where he bought and been running the Silver Gate Bath House, until he was taken sick about two years ago. His sons, Lloyd, Dee and Harvey have been with him at different times helping in his work.
The doctors in California pronounced his trouble asthma, coursed by the altitude so he returned to Hot Springs on May 20, 1910, where he has since been. While at the Siloam last spring he was helped and able to be on the streets and visit with old time friends during the summer but in August he failed again and has since been quite feeble. The last time he attended any public gathering was during the Buffalo Gap Fair, where he spent a day at the Gap. Mrs. Ferguson is spending the winter months with her sons, Will and Lloyd, who are in California and Harvey is working in the St. Charles Bath House in Hot Springs, Arkansas, so they were unable to attend the funeral.
Funeral services were held at the home of Mr. and Mrs. L. E. Highley where Dr Ferguson had been living since fall, at 9:15 Sunday morning conducted by Rev. D. D. Tallman. A large attendance of friends was present notwithstanding. Rev. Tallman spoke impressively of the life and habits of Dr. Ferguson, choosing for his discourse, the book of Job, the favorite book of the deceased. The Presbyterian choir rendered sweet and beautiful music. Pallbearers were, Capt. Phillips, L. LaPage, W. R. Morgan, A. D. Goddard, W. Mcgowan and S. L. Kirtley. Mrs. George Miller, a niece, from Edgemont and old time friends, Mr. and Mrs. H Robinson of Andrews, Nebraska, were in attendance with the bereaved. The remains were interred in the Evergreen cemetery.
Hot Springs Star Feb 9, 1911
Also a shameless plug — visit the Pioneer Museum online at http://www.pioneer-museum.com and on Facebook Pioneer Museum, Hot Springs.
Hope everyone is having fun with this.
Is the Hot Springsd Public Library in the least bit interested in donating the original book to the Library of Congress? It certainly should go there, seems to me. The map And the book are more together than they would be separately. If it is, I would be more than happy to pay the cost of having a true copy scan of it made, having it appropriately bound for its own collection.
If you would run that by the Library Board, I would be grateful. If you agree at all with the idea, better someone local to float it by than someone “not from around here.”
Let me know if there is any interest at all, please.
Hi There – there is a copy of the pamplet at the Hot Springs, SD library also.
Does this means there are no copyright restrictions? I’d love to print that map on a t-shirt. Could you dump the high-res file on a dropbox folder, to avoid shipping a cd to Europe?
65Mb is not that much on a cable connection
While I’d surely like to get at least partial reimbursement for the roughly $85 it cost me to have the Very High Resolution scan of it made, I do sincerely doubt that a T-shirt would do justice to that much resolution. I’ve left a 2+ Mb scan on several websites, which I suspect for T-shirt purposes would do every bit as well.
I sort of intended the VHR scan for my own use and for those with a genuine interest in reprinting the map in full size, which is 31.25 x 21.25. I’ll make that one available for $10 plus S&H within the US, which will include the disc, box and postage. I can make special arrangements for Europe, but in order to keep that VHR scan off the net and able to be sent pretty much anywhere to anyone, I’d as lief not send it electronically.
I trust you understand. I’m not going to make any money off the VHR scan, but if I could get my costs back down to something reasonable, that’d sure be good.
That having been said, I don’t have and don’t intend to get a copyright on it. It’s history and should be shown more than it has been in the past 118 years. I put it out there in the public domain knowing that the smaller scanned image could go most anywhere, including T-shirts and whatever.
Doesn’t bother me if someone does that. I should hope that Orlando would be smiling.
I can confirm that the large scan included in the entry above works fine on a t-shirt. I just tested it and it’s more than big enough. :yes:
If someone does decide to do a T-shirt run, I’d appreciate a notification. It’d be fun to have one or two of those.
Professor of Divinity
Don, if you don’t want people to share your scan why not put it up on a site like Zazzle.com ? It allows you to sell poster prints (or t-shirts and whatnot) without ever having to give out the source file to strangers.
That’s a good idea, Don. I’d be glad to help you set up a Zazzle store, if you’d like. There are people all over the web who have expressed a desire for a poster or t-shirt of the Square and Stationary Earth. You’d probably make back your digitization costs fairly quickly.
A useful idea and a very generous one. The map gets shipped out tomorrow via one of those services that ships artworks around the country. It will be a relief having it secure. I’ve been mildly concerned since the matter got loose in the news media. Let’s discuss this after it leaves. I may take some pictures of them packing it up. And fwiw, the original reporter from the Forum in Fargo ND called me up this morning to do a followup on the discovery of two more copies, the book and the lecture notes. Which seems quite reasonable. I sent her the e-mail copies as evidence that the discussion has come along quite unexpectedly positively. Sorta fun!
I’m sure you’ll enjoy a nice, restful sleep for the first time in a week once the delivery service takes possession.
It’s amazing how the story has taken off. I’m very much looking forward to reading the follow-up article, and to seeing your pictures of the packing. Please do take them! One rarely gets to peek behind the curtain to see the nuts and bolts of how museums handle delicate artifacts.
Since I’m a map geek, I had to take a run down on the publisher shown in the lower right hand corner of the file graphic shown above. Louis H. Everts of Philadelphia was pretty well known, but the time of this publishing (1893) was apparently not active in Philadelphia. This could easily have been a second (or third) run.
There are a few interesting bits of information about the esoterica Mr. Everts was printing about this time:
http://www.stonybrook.edu/libmap/coordinates/seriesb/no11/b11.htm
Your contribution has certainly moved the internet.
Hi Mr. Homuth, I sent you an email a couple days ago. I would like to purchase a digital copy and need your mailing address. Also, the reporter just contacted me also for the follow up story. This has been an exciting couple of weeks! Thanks for getting it all started.
What a fascinating character. Two of his primary publishing interests — maps and religious references — came together to make sweet magic in Mr. Ferguson’s masterpiece. I suspect that we owe the handsome design of this map to one of Mr. Everts’ team of draftsmen. That would explain its professional atlas look, which I doubt Mr. Ferguson would have been able to produce on his own.
All props go to that anonymous draftsman for making the Square and Stationary Earth look so damn cool.
Thank you kindly for sharing of your nerdery. :thanks:
It really has, even for we spectators who don’t happen to have one of the few remaining copies. I can’t wait to read this article. :boogie: