1755 Homann Heirs and Bellin Map of the Great Lakes

An influential map of the Great Lakes, drawn in 1755 by Jacques Nicholas Bellin and reengraved by Homann Heirs for the 1755 Atlas Homannianus Mathematic-Historice Delineatus. It depicts the five Great Lakes, as well as the adjacent Indian lands and the English colonies of Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and New York. Due to the reach of the Homann Heirs firm, this is one of the most iconic early maps of the Great Lakes.

The Source

This Homann Heirs map is derived from an earlier map Bellin prepared of Pierre Francois Xavier de Charlevoix's 1744 Histoire et description generale de la Nouvelle France, which in turn was based upon manuscripts compiled by Gaspard-Joseph Chaussegros de Lery (1721 - 1797), a French Canadian military engineer active around Great Lakes region in the early 18th century. Bellin engraved an expanded second map in 1745, revising it again in 1755. It is this second state upon which Homann Heirs based the present map.

The Isles of Lake Superior

Despite Lake Superior having been avoided entirely in Charlevoix's visit to North America, the omission did not prevent the Jesuit from inventing the four spurious islands shown for the first time on this map, here noted as Philippeaux, Pontchartrain, Maurepas, and St. Anne. The islands were intended to honor Charlevoix's personal patron, the Count of Maurepas, Jean-Frederic Phelypeaux (1701 - 1781). The largest of the four islands, Philippeaux, is named directly after the count. The second largest island, Pontchartrain, refers to Phelypeaux's family estate. The third island, which may, in fact, be a mismapping of the factual State Islands, is named after the count's seat, Maurepas. St. Anne, the fourth and smallest of the islands, references the count's patron saint. Charlevoix described the islands as rich in minerals, leading numerous explorers to search for them in vain. Bellin dutifully introduced the four islands to his map, offered here, and such was his influence that they were subsequently copied by most subsequent cartographers, including John Mitchell in his seminal 1755 wall map of North America. (Resulting, ultimately, in the 1783 use of the imaginary Philippeaux as a landmark along the new United States - British America border.

The Homann Edition

The plate was engraved by the Homann Heirs shop in 1755 in response to the French and Indian War (1754 - 1763). The map's details include the names and locations of the region's indigenous nations, their alliances, and their status - for example, the nation south of Lake Erie is described in French as 'The Country of the Erie, which was destroyed by the Iroquois.' The vast lands of the Miami, the Iroquois, the Erie, the Huron, the Renard, the Mascouten, and the Illinois overwhelm tiny bastions of French power in the form of various forts and missions. Among these are Fort Frontenac, Fort Niagara, Mission Francois Xavier, and the fledgling 'R. et Port de Checagou,' the future site of Chicago. Without the vast colonial resources of the English and Spanish, the French relied heavily on their alliances with indigenous populations.

Political Distortion

In the lower right, the English colonies in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Virginia, and New York are shown disproportionately small in comparison with the territory on which the map is focused. While including English colonies at all may have been an effort simply to contextualize the relevant French holdings, it would not be the first time on a map that the French had visually minimized the extent of their rival's territory.

Publication History and Census

This map was engraved in Nuremberg for Homann's Heirs' 1755 Atlas Homannianus Mathematic-Historice Delineatus. It remained in print without change in their 1759 Atlas Geographicus Major. The map is well represented in institutional collections.