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Description

First State of Nicollet's Landmark Mapping of the Mississippi River Valley and its Tributaries, with Original Report

Nice example of J. N. Nicollet's landmark map of the Upper Mississippi River, a milestone in the mapping of the Transmississippi West and one of the most important American maps of the 19th Century. The present example is accompanied by Nicollet's senate report in the original blue wrappers.

This is the first state of the map, which includes the words "Published by order of the U.S. House of Representatives" below the date. The second state was published for the Senate.

Nicollet's map is the earliest accurate mapping of the interior of North America, from St. Louis north to the Canadian Border, and west along the Missouri River. Covering the region of the Northern Plains and Upper Mississippi River, the map is based upon a series of systematic instrument surveys conducted by Nicollet, a French trained mathematician and astronomer, between 1836 and 1840.

Schartz and Ehrenberg comment that "Nicollet's map initiated the scientific mapping of the trans-Mississippi West by the War Department." Rumsey remarks that "the map was years ahead of its time, with its regional concept and sound basis in instrument readings and astronomically determined points." The map is the first to chart the Mississippi River utilizing mathematical calculations to confirm the true source of the Mississippi. In total, Nicollet utilized over 90,000 readings.

Joseph Nicollet compiled the data during his 1839 expedition to the headwaters of the Mississippi with the Army Corps of Topographical Engineers, the first such expedition organized by the newly reorganized Corps. Nicollet was assisted by John C. Fremont, then on his first assignment as a surveyor, and has the distinction of being Fremont's first published survey.

Reference
Schwartz & Ehrenberg p.265-68; Goetzmann, Army Exploration in the American West, pp. 72–74; Rumsey Collection, no. 2488; Sabin, 55257; Streeter, vol. III, no. 1808; Wagner-Camp, 98.