Nicollet, Joseph Nicolas (Jean-Nicolas Nicollet)
Joseph Nicolas Nicollet (Jean-Nicolas Nicollet; July 24, 1786 - September 11, 1843) was a French-born American geographer, mathematician, and astronomer best known for mapping the Upper Mississippi River basin. Nicollet was born in Savoy and was recognized as a gifted student, earning a scholarship to the Jesuit college at Chambéry. He was a math prodigy, already teaching the subject to others at age 19. In 1817, he was recruited to work with Pierre-Simon Laplace and teach at the Observatoire de Paris. Soon afterwards, he also began teaching at the Collège Louis-le-Grand. Following the 1830 July Revolution, Nicollet ran into financial trouble and professional roadblocks, motivating him to move to the United States in 1832, already harboring a goal to map the Upper Mississippi. These efforts were delayed by a cholera outbreak, but Nicollet finally reached St. Louis in 1835 and quickly gained the financial support of the American Fur Company and the wealthy French-descended Choteau family, which had helped found St. Louis. With this critical backing, Nicollet spent the next four years leading three expeditions through the Upper Mississippi region. Members of his surveying teams included John C. Fremont and William H. Emory, who would go on to become two of the most important 19th century American cartographers. In September 1839, Nicollet traveled to Washington, D.C. to write up a report of his expeditions as a Congressional report. He planned to return to conduct further expeditions, but was unable to due to poor health and he died in Washington in 1843, after which he was buried in the Congressional Cemetery, a mark of how highly regarded his important work was at the time. The publication of Nicollet's report and maps were essential in promoting the understanding of the region's topography and peoples. His journals, later published, also made many detailed notes on the Native American groups he encountered.
Nicollet, Joseph Nicolas is also known as: Jean-Nicolas Nicollet
'One of the greatest contributions ever made to American geography' - G. K. Warren
Hydrological Basin of the Upper Mississippi River From Astronomical and Barometrical Observations, Surveys, and Information.
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This is Joseph N. Nicollet's foundational 1843 map of the Upper Mississippi River Basin, which far surpassed all earlier maps of the area. It was the culmination of Nicollet's life's work and four surveying expeditions, which also helped launch the careers of John C. Frémont and William H. Emory, two of the greatest American explorers of the 19th century. (more details)