Guillaume Delisle's 1718 Carte de la Louisiane et du Cours du Mississipi provided the first complete and accurate picture of the Mississippi and Missouri river valleys.

This highly detailed and heavily annotated map is the first to use the place name ‘Chicago’ (Chicagou) – surrounded by indications of the tribal territories of numerous Indian nations.

The map is the first to use the place name ‘Texas’ -- (Mission de los Teijas, establie en 1716) in present-day east Texas.

A detailed inset at the lower right provides the first accurate depiction of the Mississippi River delta and Lake Pontchartrain (Lac Ponchartrain).

Prepared for the King of France, this landmark map showed an expansive New France completely surrounding a diminutive group of English colonies hugging the mid-Atlantic coastline. New Spain (Nouveau Mexique) flanks La Louisiane to the west. At the upper left, Delisle notes that the Spanish have journeyed further to the northwest and brought back 'yellow iron'.

Delisle, the 18th-century's greatest mapmaker, illustrated the French strategy of controlling the North American waterways -- from the St. Lawrence to the Great Lakes and down the Mississippi to the Gulf of Mexico. While the strategy failed, this map was the first to successfully document the discoveries of Hernando de Soto, Henri de Tonty and Louis de St. Denis.

About Guillaume Delisle

Guillaume Delisle was a scientific cartographer of the highest order. As the young prodigy of an illustrious mapmaking family, his work as an eight-year old came to the attention of Louis XIV.

His quick assimilation of every geographic discovery reported by reliable sources resulted in many firsts, including his rejection of the concept of California as an island and his drafting of its correct peninsular coastline. Delisle was also the first to correctly show the location of the Mississippi River's outflow into the Gulf of Mexico.