Based on the Discoveries of Jolliet and Marquette

This late 19th- or early 20th-century facsimile of Melchisedech Thévenot’s 1681 map reproduces the earliest printed depiction of the Mississippi River, based on the 1673 expedition of Louis Jolliet and Father Jacques Marquette. It represents the first separate map to illustrate their journey down the Mississippi—one of the great milestones in the cartographic history of North America.

Printed on laid paper with a period watermark, this example appears to have been produced by a photo-mechanical process, possibly for a late-century edition of Thévenot’s Recueil des Voyages or as a faithful reproduction intended to resemble the 17th-century original.

Jolliet and Marquette’s expedition traced the Fox and Wisconsin Rivers to the upper Mississippi, continued south past the mouths of the Missouri, Ohio, and Arkansas Rivers, and returned via the Illinois and Des Plaines Rivers to Lake Michigan—establishing the earliest European geographic understanding of the continental interior.

Thévenot’s map was the first to show the Mississippi and its northern tributaries from firsthand observation, and the first printed map to include the name “Michigan” (Mitchigami). A second edition appeared in 1689, with minor Latinized revisions to the title and legends; both editions are now extremely scarce.

While this example is a rare early facsimile, authentic originals are exceptionally rare and highly prized among collectors.