Henry Payot (January 15, 1838 - November 21, 1921) was an American artist, lithographer, stationer, bookseller and publisher active in San Francisco during the Gold Rush and thereafter. He was born in South Carolina to French parents, but in 1851 (at the age of 13) struck out west to make his fortune in the Gold Rush. Arriving in San Francisco, he found employment with lithographers Quirot and Company. In the 1860 census he is listed as a stationer, with a Swiss-born wife Louisa and a daughter Henriette (if these dates are to be believed, he became a father at the age of fifteen.) By that year, Payot was publishing La ruche littéraire, a weekly French-language newspaper; he would be prominent in the activities of the French Mutual Benevolent Society, an immigrant society in support of San Francisco's French expatriot communmity. Certainly by 1866, Payot was well established enough to employ servants (a maid in his employ ran afoul of the law, stealing some sixty dollars' worth of Mrs. Payot's underclothing) Between 1867 and 1869 he was established as a bookseller under his own name, specializing in education. He would eventually establish his own litho-engraving business (Payot, Upham and Company.) He was successful enough to afford several world tours; he would give lectures about his trips to Japan, Rome, Spain, and elsewhere. By 1907 he was a San Francisco supervisor and member of the board of education. He was also, by all accounts, an accomplished hunter. More by this mapmaker...

François-Désiré Gosselin (June 16, 1809 - October 1, 1867) was a French printer, publisher, printseller and apparent revolutionary, active in Paris. He was born in Honfleur, the son of a shipwright. Nothing is known of his training. When not publishing political satire, his output focused on military matters: maps of operations, portraits of military leaders, views of theaters of operation. He also printed children's and puzzles. He appears also to have both published his own views and prints, and distributed those of others (for example, the American printer Henry Payot.

Gosselin appears to have been an active socialist during the turbulence of the 1840s and 50s. In early 1848 he publsished an array of satirical lithographs lampooning King Louis-Philippe and other European sovereigns. He faced charges for his more active role in the uprising of June 1848, having put his company of the National Guard on duty near a barricade where it was disarmed by the forces of order; he would be sentenced to one year in prison. In 1851, he was again arrested, although nothing could be proven against him. He was pardoned on May 28, 1852, but subject to surveillance, until August 16, 1855. Learn More...

Louis Le Breton (January 15, 1818 - August 30, 1866) was a French medical doctor and maritime painter active in the middle part of the 19th century. He was born in Douarnenez,, France to a long line of doctors. He studied medicine at the L'École de Médecine de la Marine de Brest (1837 - 1837), subsequently joining the navy as surgeon. Le Breton is notable for having taken part in the third Jules Dumont d'Urville (1790 - 1842) voyage (1837 - 1841). He initially joined the expedition on board the Astrolabe as a surgical assistant. Breton was distantly related to d'Urville and leveraged his family connections for a place on the prestigious circumnavigation. In the early days of the expedition, Le Breton befriended the expedition's official painter, Ernest Goupil (1814 - 1840), under whom he studied marine painting, quickly exhibiting a natural proficiency. In 1840, when Goupil died of dysentery in Hobart, Tasmania, Le Breton took over the artist's official duties. When the voyage returned to Paris, he was knighted as a Chevalier de la Légion d'Honneur and on D'Urville's recommendation worked in subsequent years compiling the Atlas du Voyage for D'Urville's official account. He returned to the sea in 1844 on board the Cradle, again as a surgeon, returning to Paris in 1846. From 1847, he dedicated himself fully to painting, formally resigning his naval commission in 1848. Afterwards, he worked as a draftsman and engraver, famously producing graphic illustrations of demons for Collin de Plancy's Dictionnaire Infernal. Le Breton died in Paris of cholera in 1866. Learn More...