Cartography of Antarctica through ages

One of the earliest references to Antarctica could be observed on a 1677 dated map by Pierre Du Val, wherein he mentions a vast contiguous continent lying south of Amerique Meridionale, Afrique, Nowelle Holande denoted as Terres Ant-Arctiques dites Australes et Magellaniques et Inconnues, which loosely translates as 'Antarctic lands known as Austral, Magellanic and unknown'. It's interesting to note how the etymology of Antarctica was clearly stressed on as in Ant-Arctique or 'anti-Arctic', literally meaning the opposite of Arctic. At the end of the 17th century, one would find a name Terra Magelanica, Incognita, Australe, O'Meridionale denoting everything that's south to all the continents known back then. 

The Strait of Magellan separates mainland South America from the Tierra del Fuego (Chile-Argentina) and is probably one of those very few geographical entities that are named after a person - Ferdinand Magellan (1480-1581), rather than a natural feature. Had history was written in an alternative way, Ferdinand Magellan would have been probably the only human after which a continent would have been christened. Before the nomenclature of Antarctica, the various Latin names consisting of the words Austral and Magellanic were what the then cartographers knew of this continent. A natural curiosity to explore more was (and still is) an obvious fact, so much so that even the non-imperial nations have sent their research missions to Antarctica, establishing a range of stations there. At present, listing down the names of the sovereign states that have (or had) their various research stations, from oldest to the most recent ones. 

1. Argentina (1904, 1947, 1948, 1951, 1952, 1953, 1957, 1961, 1965, 1969, 1979, 1980)
2. United States (1929, 1941, 1956, 1957, 1958, 1962, 1965, 1968, 1973, 1985, 1992, 1996)
3. United Kingdom (1944, 1945, 1946, 1947, 1949, 1953, 1955, 1956, 1961, 1975, 1994) 
4. Chile (1947, 1948, 1951, 1954, 1955, 1962, 1969, 1982, 1984, 1991, 1999, 2006, 2014)
5. Norway (1949, 1957, 1990, 1993)
6. Sweden (1949, 1988, 1989)
7. France (1950, 1956, 2005)
8. Australia (1954, 1957, 1995)
9. New Zealand (1956, 1957, 1958)
10. Russia / Soviet Union (1956, 1957, 1958, 1959, 1960, 1961, 1962, 1968, 1971, 1975, 1978, 1980, 1982, 1987, 1988, 1992)
11. Belgium (1957, 1964, 2007)
12. Poland (1959, 1977)
13. South Africa (1960, 1969, 1971, 1979, 1982, 1985, 1997)
14. Netherlands (1964, 2013)
15. Japan (1970, 1985, 1995)
16. Italy (1976, 1986, 2005)
17. Germany (1982, 1983, 1976, 1986, 1990, 1992, 1994, 2001, 2009)
18. Uruguay (1984, 1997)
19. Brazil (1984)
20. India (1984, 1989, 2012)
21. China (1985, 1989, 2009, 2014)
22. Romania (1986)
23. Finland (1988)
24. Spain (1988)
25. South Korea (1988, 2014)
26. Bulgaria (1988)
27. Czechoslovakia / Czech Republic (1989, 2006)
28. Spain (1989)
29. Peru (1989)
30. Ecuador (1990)
31. Pakistan (1991)
32. Belarus (2007)
33. Ukraine (1994)

Listing down the subantarctic research stations in the same chronology:

1. New Zealand (1946)
2. Australia (1948)
3. South Africa (1948)
4. United Kingdom (1950)
5. South Africa (1956)
6. United Kingdom (1957)
7. Frannce (1963)

It's clear how Argentina, the United States, the United Kingdom, Chile, Soviet Union, Germany and South Africa are the pioneers in this field. 

Jumping on the cartography of the continent, at the beginning of the 18th century, we see that the entire landmass is now replaced by nothing but latitudes and longitudes crisscrossing at the Pole Antartique. This was also the time when cartographers deliberately left undiscovered territories incomplete and so one could find partial maps of Australia, New Zealand and all the islands of Oceania and the ones lying in the South Atlantic Ocean. A clearer name to the region would appear in the mid-18th century maps when Terres Australes or Antarctique were used interchangeably. This also means that while mainland Australia was marked as New Holland, the Antarctica region was also known as Southern Lands, in the loose sense if translated to English. However, 'Austral' literally means 'southern lands' as well, hence it could be assumed that the etymology of Antarctica also had the name 'Australia' as its predecessor, in layman language. 

The association of the word 'Austral' with that of the South Pole and Antarctica is evident from the 19th-century maps where the ice-continent would now start getting a random and absurd shape, while the South Pole is marked as 'Austral Pole', as per an 1827 sketched map by Nicolas Desmarest (1725-1815). It is only at the end of the 19th century that geographical features such as mountain ranges, ice-shelves and a polygonal shape can be seen on the continent. Names such as Victoria Land, Adelie Land, Wilkes Land etc. can be seen along with various magnetic poles marked by various explorers. The list of various geographical features as marked on 1894 dated map by the Royal Geographical Society are as follows:

1. Victoria Land
2. Wilkes Land
3. Sabrina Land or Totten Land
4. Adelie Land
5. Clarie Land
6. Budd Land
7. Knox Land
8. Kemp Land
9. Enderby Land
10. Graham Land
11. Alexander I Land

A proper name 'Antarctica' is also mentioned on this map, unlike its previous versions with altered names. The entire Antarctica peninsula that starts from the Weddell Sea to Palmer Land is marked as a single continuous stretch of land, the Graham Land. The Victoria Land stretch is shown to have multiple mountain peaks such as Parry Mts., Mt. Terror, Mt. Erebus, Mt. Melbourne, Mt. Herschell and Mt. Sabine. Small fragments of islands such as Possession Island, Franklin Island, Coulman Island and the Balleny Islands surround this stretch. 

With the arrival of the 20th century, numerous expeditions to the continent have improved the cartography of Antarctica massively. At the beginning of the century, Antarctica was broadly divided into four sub-regions: Ross Sea, Weddell Sea, Enderby and Victoria. At present, the Antarctica continent is divided into the following sections: 

1. Palmer Land (divided into lands claimed by Argentina, UK and Australia)
2. Ellsworth Land (parts of it is claimed by Chile)
3. Marie Byrd Land (largely unclaimed)
4. Victoria Land (divided into lands claimed by Argentina and New Zealand)
5. Wilkes Land (claimed by Argentina and France)
6. Mac. Robertson Land (claimed by Argentina)
7. Queen Maud Land (divided into lands claimed by Norway and Australia)

Below here is a recreated version of the 1894 dated Royal Geographic Society map of Antarctica.