(Title Page to) Report Intended To Illustrate A Map Of The Hydrographical Basin of the Upper Mississippi River, Made by I.N. Nicollet ... February 16, 1841. Washington: Blair and Rives, Printers. 1843. [Senate.] 26th Congress, 2d Session. [237].
List No:
2488A
Series No:
1
Publication Author:
Fremont, J.C.; Nicollet, J. N. (Joseph Nicolas), 1786-1843
Pub Date:
1843
Pub Title:
Report Intended To Illustrate A Map Of The Hydrographical Basin of the Upper Mississippi River, Made by I.N. Nicollet ... February 16, 1841. Washington: Blair and Rives, Printers. 1843. (with map) Hydrographical Basin of the Upper Mississippi River From Astronomical and Barometrical Observations Surveys and Information by J.N. Nicollet ... assisted ... by Lieut. J.C. Fremont ... 1843 ... W.J. Stone Sc.
First edition, first issue. A larger version of the accompanying map was issued in 1842 with scale of 1:600,000 - this version is unknown to us (and anyone else we have met)- Bray states that only 200 copies were printed; the House of Representatives issued this 1843 edition in 1845 with no changes, although Wagner Camp says the map was smaller and Bray states that it was a more faithful representation of the original 1842 map. See Donald Jackson, The Expeditions of John Charles Fremont, for a history of the Nicollet map and all the Fremont maps. Fremont worked extensively with Nicollet on this map and "this was the work which trained Fremont in cartography." (Jackson). This map was the earliest accurate map of the Northern Plains and the Upper Mississippi. G.K. Warren, in his Memoir, stated that this "map was one of the greatest contributions ever made to American geography." Nicollet died in 1843. His map was years ahead of its time, with its regional concept and sound basis in instrument readings and astronomically determined points. Goetzmann: "Had he lived one more decade, Nicollet would undoubtedly have become the official government cartographer of the whole trans-Mississippi West." Rebound in brown fabric covers with "Hydrographical Basin of the Upper Mississippi, I.N. Nicollet, 1843" in gold on the spine.
