1749 Vaugondy Map of the Great Lakes and New England

Attractive hand colored map of the Great Lakes and the American colonies issued just prior to the French and Indian War.

This is a hand colored 1749 Didier Robert de Vaugondy map of the Great Lakes on the cusp of the French and Indian War (1754 – 1763). The organization of the map is significant, with the French controlled Great Lakes dominating the map. The English colonies, which are disproportionally reduced, hug the coast but, save through their alliance with the Iroquois federation, have no access to the Great Lakes. Similarly, Pennsylvania, Virginia and Maryland are limited to lands east of the Appalachian Mountains, reflecting the French claims that would soon lead to war.

The map depicts from the middle of the United States, which Vaugondy refers to as Louisiane on the left to the Eastern Seaboard of the United States, then the colonies and from Canada, just north of Lake Superior south toe the Carolinas. This map is highly detailed. It depicts some of the American colonies, though not all thirteen. New England, New York, Pennsylvania, Maryland, New Jersey, Maryland, Virginia, and Carolina are labeled. New Scotland is labeled to the north of New England and the Iroquois nation is colored, giving the impression that New Scotland and the Iroquois nation are part of the American colonies, reflecting an important Indian alliance. Large cities, such as Quebec, Montreal, Philadelphia, Boston, and New York are labeled, as well as all five of the Great Lakes: Superior, Michigan, Huron, Erie, and Ontario.

Numerous river systems are depicted, including the Mississippi. The Appalachian Mountains are depicted. Several Native American tribes are identified on the map, including the Huron and Sioux. Northern Canada, however, is noted solely as 'ce pays est inconnu' or 'unknown country'.

This map was published by Gilles Robert de Vaugondy in his Atlas Universel, Portatif et Militaire in the 1748 edition.

Cartographer

Robert de Vaugondy (fl. c. 1716 - 1786) was a French publishing firm run by Gilles (1688 - 1766) and Didier (c. 1723 - 1786) Robert de Vaugondy. They were map publishers, engravers, and cartographers active in Paris during the mid-18th century. Gilles was the nephew of Pierre Moulard Sanson, and was thus the inheritor of Nicolas Sanson (1600 - 1667), whose stock supplied much of their initial material and whose legacy supplied much of their initial reputation. Graduating from Sanson's maps, Gilles, and more particularly Didier, began to produce their own substantial corpus. The Vaugondys were well-respected for the detail and accuracy of their maps, for which they capitalized on the resources of 18th-century Paris to compile the most accurate and fantasy-free maps possible. The Vaugondys compiled each map based on their own geographic knowledge, scholarly research, journals of contemporary explorers and missionaries, and direct astronomical observation. Moreover, unlike many cartographers of this period, they took pains to reference their sources. Nevertheless, even in 18th-century Paris, geographical knowledge was limited - especially regarding those unexplored portions of the world, including the poles, the Pacific Northwest of America, and the interiors of Africa, Australia, and South America. This gap in knowledge let to divergent geographical approaches, epitomized by the Buache-Vaugondy debates at the French Academie des Sciences - one of the key pivotal moments in the history of modern cartography. Buache, in his Exposé, argued for a Theoretical Geography, which postulated that a systematic and scientific approach could accurately fill in the map in advance of actual exploration. Vaugondy's scathing critique of the Exposé, presented as the Considerations, argued for empirical restraint in cartography, suggesting that unexplored areas should simply be left blank and that mapping itself should rely on documentable current discovery. While Bucahe, with more political acumen and connections, initially came out ahead in the debates, the subsequent decades saw voyages of discovery by Captains James Cook, Jean Francois de Galaup de La Perouse, and George Vancouver disprove most of his map. Nonetheless, by that time, Vaugondy, advanced in age, did not live long enough to see his approach become ascendant. Didier died more celebrated than solvent, and his maps were acquired by Jean-Baptiste Fortin, who in 1787 sold them to Charles-François Delamarche (1740 - 1817). Delamarche, more businessman than cartographer, prospered from the Vaugondy maps, but defrauded Vaugondy's widow, Marie Louise Rosalie Dangy, of her rightful inheritance and may even have killed her.   Further Details...

Source

Robert de Vaugondy, G., Atlas Portatif, Universel, et Militaire, (Paris: Vaugondy, Durand, Pissot) 1749.    

Condition

Very good. Blank on verso. Original press mark visible.

References

Pedley, M. S., Bel et Utile, p. 212, 457.