Seventeenth-Century Jesuit Explorers’ Maps of the Great Lakes and Their Influence on Subsequent Cartography of the Region
Year: 2019
Type: article
Abstract: When the French coureurs des bois and missionaries began to penetrate the interior of North America around the middle of the seventeenth century, they were confronted with a hydrological system of remarkable complexity, unique in the world. Some hints of the relationship of the five Great Lakes had been garnered by Samuel de Champlain in the early part of the century, but the western Great Lakes remained virtually unknown to Europeans about 1650. The delineation of this region was the work of four Jesuit-trained cartographers, whose work can (rather unusually) be completely traced from exploration to the original manuscript and then to the versions printed in Europe. It was in this way that French Jesuit maps came to form part of the North American cartographic image of many contemporary Europeans.
Source: Journal of Jesuit Studies
Authors: Carl Kupfer, David Buisseret
Institution: Newberry Library
Language: English
Subfield: Geography, Planning and Development
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: diamond
OpenAlex ID: W2921963545