Carte de la Louisiane et du cours du Mississippi

Caption

Carte de la Louisiane et du cours du Mississippi. Library of Congress, Geography and Map Division.

Catalog notes

The Mississippi drainage system gives this French map its organizing structure, placing river connections ahead of the state boundaries familiar today. It presents a continent through travel routes, settlements and competing colonial claims. Notes and Indigenous place names contribute to its detailed picture of the interior. Compared with later navigation charts of the same river, it shows how the mapmaker’s purpose shaped the geography selected for emphasis.

Original catalog record, source and attribution