Georges Henri Victor Collot (March 21, 1750 - May 15, 1805) was a French military officer, colonial administrator, spy, and explorer active in the West Indies and Spanish Louisiana during the second half of the 19th century. Collot was born in Chalons-sur-Marne, France in 1750. He joined the military after school and was sent to the New World to fight alongside George Washington in the American Revolutionary War. He eventually attained the rank of Major General and in 1793 was made governor of the French colony of Guadeloupe. This position proved short lived as the colony was shortly thereafter seized by the British, who sent Collot to New York to face legal charges. Cleared of wrongdoing, Collot was commissioned by Pierre Adet, French minister to the United States, to complete a detailed clandestine reconnaissance of military preparedness in the Ohio and Mississippi River Valleys, presumably in anticipation of a French repossession of Spanish Louisiana. Collot's superlatively scarce one year study included a detailed two volume report and some of the finest maps and views of this region ever produced. Political sensitivity related to Franco-Spanish Treaty negotiations and the Louisiana Purchase delayed the printing of his work until 1805. Collot died later in the same year after which his work was shelved and largely forgotten. It was rediscovered in 1826 by prominent French publisher M. Bertrand, who recognizing it value, release it in extremely limited quantities. Only 300 copies were issued in French and 100 in English, all other volumes from the 1805 printing, Bertrand destroyed. Despite being published posthumously by 21 years, Collot's work Journey in North America, Containing a Survey of the Countries Watered by the Mississippi, Ohio, Missouri, and Other Affluing Rivers, proved to be his greatest legacy. More by this mapmaker...

Pierre Antoine-François Tardieu (February 17, 1757 - January 14, 1822), also known as Tardieu de l'Estrapade, for his address at Place de L'Estrapade, was a French geographical engraver and publisher active in Paris during the late 18th and early 19th centuries. A member of the large and prolific Tardieu family, which, for over 200 years, produced multiple skilled and active engravers. A disciple of his uncle Pierre-François Tardieu, in his youth Antoine-Francois would sign his works Pierre-François (or P.F. Tardieu; 1711 - 1771) , but later in his career began using his own name or (P.A.F. Tardieu). His two sons, Pierre-Antoine Tardieu and Ambroise Tardieu (1788 - 1841), both became noted geographical engravers in the own right. Learn More...