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Important Early Great Lakes Map Dedicated to the Comte d'Argenson, Louis XV's Minister of War

Second state of De Vaugondy's rare separately issued map of the Great Lakes, Canada, and British and French Colonies in North America.

This rare separate issue map by Robert de Vaugondy depicts the region of North America east of the Great Lakes. First published in 1753, the map dates to a period of conflicting colonial claims, with the French and the British each asserting claims to the Ohio Valley and Trans-Appalachian West.

In Mary Pedley's work on the De Vaugondy Family, Bel et Utile, six pages is dedicated to the remarkable history of this map. Pedley notes that this map, which was dedicated to the Comte d'Argenson, Louis XV's Minister of War, created an international incident with the British delegation to the Acadia Boundary commission, which viewed the map as a government inspired attempt by the French to push back the boundaries of British Acadia toward the Atlantic Peninsula. The English viewed the map as propaganda in the boundary dispute, which suspicion was fueled by an advertisement in the Mercure de France, which attested to the accuracy and official sources for the information in the map. The controversy was so strong that DeVaugondy had to print a retraction.

The map was in fact based upon observations by the Marquis de Chabert in 1750 and 1751, reported to the Academy of Sciences in 1752, and published in 1753. The resulting debate rhetoric included Thomas Jefferys and Phillipe Buache. The second state of the map incorporates information from a contemporary manuscript map of the Ohio River in the Depot de la Marine, which corrects the course of the River and adds the French Forts south of Lake Erie.

A copy of this map was part of George Washington's collection at the time of "The Final Sale of the Relics of George Washington . . . " as cataloged by Stan V. Henckels for sale on April 21-23, 1891, item #620.

States of The Map

State 1:  Ohio River trends due west, mirroring the coast of Lake Erie above it, with no topographical details on either side of the Ohio and its Tributaries.

State 2:  Ohio River now trands southwest ending near the outer scrollwork in the cartouche.  Significant topographical additions are made, to illustrate the hills and river valleys on either side of the Ohio and its major tributaries.

Rarity

It is curious to note that the map was not incorporated into De Vaugondy's Atlas Universel, and as a result is therefore quite rare on the market.