Abstract
During this past year, a map intern was working on an unidentified collection of French and Dutch maps. Each map was stamped with “Systeme d’Echange International, A.V.” Based on the intern’s research, I was able to identify this map as La Carte l’Etat-Major, a topographical map of France and a portion of the Netherlands consisting of approximately 250 sheets, dated circa 1851. I had also asked him to try to figure out the significance of the stamp. In his final report, he indicated that the initials A.V. stood for Alexandre Vattemare, who had been a ventriloquist. Naturally, this information piqued my interest, the ventriloquist part in particular. The question that came to mind was why the Library of Virginia, a state library, would have maps from a French ventriloquist.
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