Maps

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
Map to illustrate the route of Prince Macimilian of Wied in the interior of North America from Boston to the upper Missouri
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.
Carte de la Louisiane cours du Mississipi et Pays Voisins
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.
Carte du Missouri Levee ou Rectisiee dans toute son Etendue
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.
Carte pour servir au voyage des Cap.es Lewis et Clarke, à l'océan Pacifique
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."
Harbor of Saint Louis.
Map of the Mississippi River stretching from Alton, Illinois to Saint Louis, Missouri and East Saint Louis, Illinois. Includes islands (Kerr's Island; Cabaret Island; Chouteau Island; Wilson's Island; Mobile Island; Ellis Island) and railroads (CH. A. & ST. L. R. R.; St. L. A. & T. H. R. R.; Edwardsville Coal R. R.; O. & M. R. R.)., From: Message of the mayor, and reports of city officers : delivered to the city council.
Il Paese de’ Cherachesi, con la Parte Occidentale della Carolina Setenttrionale, e della Virginia
This map and the atlas it which it appeared were based on the important map by John Mitchell, one of the earliest English mapmakers to give an accurate representation of the Missouri and the central river system of the mid continent. Mitchell’s maps were influential for a century and, as seen here, were appreciated by an international following of mapmakers., From Le Colonie Unite dell’ America Settentrionale.

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