Maps of Solar Eclipses from 1895 to 1899

In the late 19th century and early 20th century, a subject of intense scrutiny was the search for new planets within the orbit of Mercury. Total solar eclipses were of course an ideal opportunity to investigate this possibility.

An intramercurial planet was hypothesized by Francois Arago, directory of the Paris Observatory, because of anamolies in the orbit of Mercury (which were later explained by Einstein’s theory of relativity). This purported planet was named Vulcan and was the subject of searches during several solar eclipses. During the eclipse of 1878 July 29, two trained observers claimed to have seen Vulcan near the sun.

When you examine the U.S. Naval Observatory eclipse supplements of the time, you can find several maps like this which were used by astronomers to search for Vulcan. After a number of attempts, Vulcan was never confirmed to exist.