A Map of the United States

Rare French map of the United States and the West Indies showing the Louisiana Purchase, together with a cartouche adorned with the Bald Eagle and 17 stars around its head.

This rare French map has often been cited as much a propaganda piece as a cartographic document. It was issued in two editions, both on dates which are extremely significant in United States history. The first issue came out in 1806, barely two years after the Louisiana Purchase. Although the Purchase did raise funds for Napoleon, there was also great hope in French diplomatic circles that it would herald a new spirit of co-operation between the United States and France. Although the two countries were allies during the Revolutionary War, during the current period, this alliance was sorely tested and eroded by French privateering activity against United States trading ships in the Caribbean and the Mediterranean. France dearly wanted to return to the former allied status against the British. This map was part of the effort to secure a new era of friendship: it was one of very few French maps published of this region during the Napoleonic Wars, it showed the vast new Purchase of Louisiana from France, crucially never acknowledged by the British during the Napoleonic War; it is titled in both English and French, aimed just as much at the American market as a French one and the title cartouche on the upper right is adorned with the symbol of the United States, a Bald Eagle surrounded by 17 stars, representing the current number of States.

The second edition was published in September 1812, only a couple of months after the beginning of the War of 1812 between the United States and Great Britain. The decoration remains the same; Lapie has not updated the number of stars around the eagle head of the cartouche, despite the formation of the new state of Louisiana in April of 1812. It is unlikely this news would have reached France by September. In France, the entrance of Great Britain into a new war was a seismic event and both Lapie and the publisher and engraver of this map, Pierre Antoine-Francoise Tardieu, seized this opportunity to launch an updated version both for commercial reasons and as a show of solidarity against the British.

Geographically, the map is based mainly on Aaron Arrowsmith’s wall maps of the United States and the Caribbean. There are also elements of William Faden’s map of the United States although this was also incorporated into Arrowsmith’s map. The area west of the Mississippi has been left notably blank, possibly for political reasons. The 1806 edition shows the configuration of the United States with seventeen states. The second edition of 1812 does not update the information west of the Mississippi, but it does add the Territories of Mississippi, Michigan, Ohio and Indiana to the map. The Territory of Michigan was the last to be formed in 1805, showing the date of the geography consulted for this new edition.

A small key on the lower left on the map shows European possessions by a colour key. This corresponds to the Caribbean as this map was also issued as two separate maps; one of the United States and the other of the West Indies.

Institutional holdings show this map as rare although the 1806 edition is relatively less scarce. It is also difficult to ascertain whether several institutions hold the two sheet single map or just one sheet.

This example is the 1812 second edition. Separately issued and folding on brown linen. Original colour. [USA9458]