Sign In

- Or use -
Forgot Password Create Account
Description

First Printed Map of Lake Champlain -- Based Upon French Manuscript Sources

Finely executed map covering Lake Champlain and the St. Lawrence River, from Quebec to Montreal, etc., which first appeared in the French edition of Charlevoix's Histoire et Description Generale de la Nouvelle France avec Le Journal Historique d'un Voyage fait par Ordre du Roi dans L'Amérique Septentrionnale, published in Paris in 1744.

The map of Lake Champlain is of particular note.  Based upon French manuscript maps from the 1740s, this is the prevailing configuration of Lake Champlain until the end of the French & Indian War.  

It would not be for another 20 years, until  1764, when Brassier completed his survey work and prepared a more accurate manuscript map of Lake Champlain, and Brassier's map would not be published by the British until 1776, making the Bellin map the most accurate and detailed printed map of the region until the outset of both the French & Indian War and the American Revolution.