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
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.
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
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.
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