The Mercantile Library's map collection is a vast holding of maps dating from the earliest days of printing to the 21st century. The Library's cartographic works include stand-alone maps; rare books with maps; travel ephemera; atlases; plats; federal, state and local urban planning and government documents, and much more. The maps cover geography and subjects ranging from the far and wide (the world, the territory of Louisiana, exploration of the far east) to the local and specific (cemetary plats, street car and feeder bus routing maps).
St. Louis Mercantile Library at the University of Missouri-St. Louis
From Karl Bodmer's "Illustration to Maximilian Prince of Wied's Travels in the Interior of North America. London : Ackerman & Co. 1844. First edition was published in Germany, 1839. See David Rumsey's Map Collection entry for more information., Single map.
Map of the townships of the State of Missouri by the Office of the Surveyor General for the States of Illinois and Missouri. Saint Louis, October 28th, 1849. Shows previous boundaries of the State of Missouri, including the old Indian boundary line, the 1837 boundary line, and the west boundary line.
Map from a work titled "A Description of the English Province of Carolana: by the Spaniards called Florida, and by the French La Louisane." The first English map of the Mississippi Valley. The whole of the territory this map comprises was claimed by the father of Daniel Coxe, the author, as the would-be proprietor of the area under the Crown. The author lived in the region for many years and explored it to its fullest extent., This map appears in the 1840 Saint Louis printing of the "A Description of the English Province of Carolana..." The map was originally printed in 1722.
Senex, an astronomer and geologist, became a popular map maker of world maps in miniature, early pocket sized maps, and almanac maps. For this chart, an accurate map for the English speaking world for its time, he borrowed heavily from the De l’Isle map. His work did not extend to duplicating French claims to Carolina, which would be reinforced by the important English map by Coxe which reduced all of French Louisiana to an English “Carolana” in fact. Ironically this map is dedicated to John Law, whose infamous “Mississippi Bubble” inflated stock scheme for the region of the Mississippi River proved the financial ruin of many Europeans of the early eighteenth century. Map is from ca. 1719., From: A New General Atlas / John Senex. 1721.
Map from Scott's "The United States Gazetteer Containing an Authentic Description of the Several States." Philadelphia: Bailey, 1795. Very little is shown to known west of the Mississippi in Scott's popular Gazetteer.
Map of the United States and Canada. Shows rivers, lakes, forts, settlements and Indian country. One of the earliest maps to show the city of St. Louis., Map from Gilbert Imlay's "A topographical description of the western territory of North America : containing a succinct account of its soil, climate, natural history, population, agriculture, manners, and customs : with an ample description of the several divisions into which that country is partitioned ..." Third edition. London : Printed for J. Debrett, 1797. Statement of responsibility for the map: T. Conder, Sculpt.
Moll, of Dutch or German origin, became along with Senex, one of England’s most prominent mapmakers, creating highly distinctive and elegant representations as his 1720 map of America. As did his contemporary, John Senex (map here), Moll relied on De l’Isle’s map for charting the Mississippi accurately. Moll was especially useful for his representation of locations of native tribes, yet, like many English cartographers of his day, adamantly stuck to the idea of California as an island—Senex was the same in this folly.
Hutchins accompanied expeditions to the Mississippi at the time of Pittman’s own travels into the Illinois Country as a young officer and produced his own accounts of these journeys with excellent maps which are among the earliest—if not the earliest—printed maps with St. Louis clearly identified in a location long known to some explorers, obscured or overlooked by others for one hundred years of mapping New France. Many of these descriptive narratives borrow heavily from Pittman, but his maps are crucial for the period he describes. Much later, Hutchins was an important surveyor for the territories of the young United States, rising to the post of Geographer to the United States, the first and only citizen ever to hold such a position., From: A topographical description of Virginia, Pennsylvania, Maryland, and North Carolina / reprinted from the original ed. of 1778; ed. by Frederick Charles Hicks.
Projected upon the best Authorities and Astronomical Observations. By Thos. Kitchin Geographer. Engraved for Cap Knox's History of the War in America. Map of the British colonies in North America in 1763, as well as French Louisiana, Canada, and some of New Mexico., From: An historical journal of the campaigns in North-America for the years 1757, 1758, 1759, and 1760 : containing the most remarkable occurrences of that period, particularly the two sieges of Quebec, &c. &c., the orders of the admirals and general officers, descriptions of the countries where the author has served, with their forts and garrisons, their climates, soil, produce, and a regular diary of the weather : as also several manifestos, a mandate of the late bishop of Canada, the French orders and disposition for the defence of the colony, &c. &c. &c. / by Captain John Knox.
Plate 6. General Plan of the Proposed Northern Riverfront Development. Includes an airport, recreation center, forest, lagoon, beaches, yacht basin, and equestrian field., From: Plans for the northern and southern river front, Saint Louis, Missouri / City Plan Commission ; Harland Bartholomew, engineer.
This map shows the aggregate poplulation, with dots representing 1000 inhabitants, of the counties of Missouri according to the census of 1860., From Bird's-eye Views of Slavery in Missouri / by E. Leigh, M.D. St. Louis: Woods et al, 1862.
This map by Leigh shows visually that Missouri was not split over slavery north to south or east to west, from 1820 and before, slavery followed the Missouri River valley and rich agricultural and industrial heartland of the state out of St. Louis, straight to Kansas City., From Bird's-eye Views of Slavery in Missouri / by E. Leigh, M.D. St. Louis: Woods et al, 1862.
Gage wrote one of the most important English travel books on America in the 17th century, exciting the English with envy—never a difficult thing to do in those days—on the wealth and the relative defenselessness of the Spanish in North America, laying out a concrete plan for domination of the continent. This map gives an idea of the paucity of specific European knowledge of the interior of North America and especially Louisiana on the eve of concerted effort by the French to explore and colonize the region. Yet, even here one sees the great, beckoning mystery of a central river, the unnamed Mississippi, nearly connecting with a huge outstretched arm of the St. Lawrence, nothing shown as yet of the Great Lakes or the elusive northwest of the vast continent., Map is reprinted in Marquette's 1655 work. Originally appeared in Mercator, Gerardus Atlas minor ... Amsterodami : ludoci Hondij., c1607 p. 19 (OCoLC)65955731
Works Progress Administration official project number 44328 under direction of Assessors Office Ralph W. Coale Assessor. Plate Number Six. Blight is directly related to age of houses. Majority of residential buildings in the central area were constructed more than fifty years ago. These have outlived their usefulness and should be replaced in large numbers., From: Report / City Plan Commission of St. Louis. [St. Louis] : City Plan Commission of St. Louis. 1942.
In the 1870s the great American tradition of bird's eye views became a popular way of depicting the seemingly limitless potential and growth of the great American cities. St. Louis was no exception and several documented the city's prominence in this period. This view is not drawn to scale, but does include an index to points of interest and two inset illustrations, of the "view of bridge from East St. Louis" and the "entrance to tunnel from Union Station."
Index: 1. U. Depot; 2. Four Courts; 3. Ent. Tunnel; 4. Post Office; 5. Court House; 6. Chamber of Commerce; 7. Genl. Office ST L. K.C.&N. RY.; 8. MO. Park; 9. Lafayette Pk.; 10. Shaws Gard; 11. Forest Pk.; 12. Fair Grounds; 13. North Park; 14. Bellefontain Cemetery; 15. Water Works, Statement of responsibility: Entered according to an Act of Congress in the year 1870, by C. K. Lord, in the office of the Librarian of Congress at Washington.
Engraved expressly for his sectional topographical & descriptive atlas of the state. Contains congressional districts, counties, judicial circuits, cities, roads, railroads, and rivers. Entered according to an act of Congress in the year 1872., From: Campbell's new atlas of Missouri : with descriptions historical, scientific, and statistica. Maps constructed and drawn on the polyconic projection / by R.A. Campbell.
A soldier who traveled extensively through the early military defenses of New France, Lahontan related a very early picture of the western lands, one of the most comprehensive to his time and his maps of the Great Lakes and the Upper Mississippi are some of the first to show the Missouri-Mississippi river confluence. Lahontan was an especially valuable correspondent on the state of the native peoples of the French colonial lands.
This is the first map reporting the last two expeditions of La Salle which related La Salle’s celebrated Mississippi exploration and became the first accurate delineation of the river system of the vast French empire. In spite of the hardships of Joutel in making his way back to Canada after the tragic death of La Salle and the breakup of the ill-fated expedition, he produced a fine account and one of the best maps to his time of the Mississippi River. Personal copy of Auguste Chouteau, donated to the St. Louis Mercantile Library Association., Map appears in Henri Joutel's Journal Historique du Dernier Voyage que Feu M. de LaSale Fit Dans le Golfe de Mexique... Published by Chez E. Robinot, 1713.
With numerous botanical illustrations and splendid maps by hydrographer, Jacques-Nicholas Bellin, Charlevoix represents a culmination in the middle of the eighteenth century of what the French knew, or thought they knew, about North America and its rivers and varied lands drained by them. He was sent to North America to find a route to the Pacific and through years of travel and study recommended doing this by the ascent of the Missouri River or through the establishment of posts along traditional native trading routes in Canada, through strategic stepping stones. Charlevoix and Bellin set out to prove that the Missouri and the Mississippi had basically the same headwaters, and the maps in these volumes reflect that thinking in the supposed nearness of the sources of both rivers. The Great Lakes through a vast system not only were connected to the Atlantic but to the Pacific as well. the works of the French explorers and cartographers heavily interested Thomas Jefferson. Charlevoix considered the confluence of the Missouri and Mississippi Rivers the finest in the world., Statement of Responsibility: Histoire et description generale de la Nouvelle France : avec le Journal historique d'un voyage fait par ordre du roi dans l'Amérique Septentrionnale / par le P. de Charlevoix.
Bellin restated cartographically French borders before vast territories were ceded away and lost., From Prevost d'Exiles' "Histoire Generale des Voiages." Paris: Didot, 1757
Guillaume De l’Isle’s “Map of Louisiana and the Mississippi River” is one of the most famous maps in American history, what cartographers call, because of its accuracy and eloquence, a “mother map,” a map in this case that spurred great imitation, innovation, and political thought. The map was originally published in 1718, the year this mapmaker was appointed Chief Geographer to the King (Louis XIV). This map of New France was used as a reference point for another half century and considered the most authoritative of the Mississippi Valley. It tracked the expeditions of De Soto, de Tonty and Louis de St. Denis. De l’Isle’s importance for the St. Louis region is inarguable. His map of Louisiana is informed of the best authorities to his time. It is the first map to correct the position of the mouth of the Mississippi, and locate it accurately. A magisterial contribution to subsequent mapmaking is De l’Isle’s correct depiction and alignment of the Mississippi River and the accurate positioning of the Mississippi Valley as a whole., From: Atlas Nouveau Contenant Toutes Les Parties du Monde.
The first of these maps was from a French school atlas which gave clear information on names of waterways, lakes, mountain ranges, native tribes, along with cities and states. The trans-Mississippi, in an interesting French administrative style, are drawn up in districts, the earliest western state, of Missouri, being in the “Ozark district”., From "Atlas Geographique dresse sous la Direction du Conseil Royal de l’instruction publique pour l’usage des colleges." Paris: Selves, 1832
A map drawn in 1802 based on information gained in St. Louis about the vast lands outward from the city in all directions., Travels through the two Louisianas, and among the savage nations of the Missouri ; also, in the United States, along the Ohio, and the adjacent provinces, in 1801, 1802, & 1803. With a sketch of the manners, customs, character, and the civil and religious ceremonies of the people of those countries / By M. Perrin du Lac. Translated from the French.
Map of the Northwest North American continent at the time of Lewis and Clark's Expedition. The map is from Patrick Gass's 1810 account of the expedition "Voyage des capitaines Lewis et Clarke : depuis l'embouchure du Missouri, jusqu'à l'entrée de la Colombia dans l'Océan Pacifique ; fait dans les années 1804, 1805 et 1806, par ordre du gouvernement des États-Unis."