The Collection's holdings also include maps from the twentieth and twenty-first centuries depicting the state's topography, municipalities, transportation networks, economic development, and natural resources. 1820) were among the first to produce printed maps of the state. The prominent American cartographers Mathew Carey (1814), William Darby (1816), and Maxfield Ludlow (ca. A map of the territory of Orleans by Barthélémy Lafon (1806) is the earliest large-scale printed map to show the basic configuration of the region that, in 1812, would become the state of Louisiana. Late eighteenth-century maps of the Mississippi River and the Gulf Coast by British cartographers such as Thomas Jeffries and Lieutenant Ross illustrate the importance of these areas for military and trade purposes.įollowing the Louisiana Purchase in 1803, the modern contours of Louisiana began to take shape. Louisiana's rich and diverse history is not confined within the boundaries of the present-day state, as demonstrated by the broad reach of the Louisiana territory depicted on eighteenth-century maps from mapmakers such as France's Guillaume de L'Isle (1718) and Britain's John Senex (1710, 1718). Several of the earliest of these holdings-including a map of the Atlantic Ocean by the German Martin Waldeseemüller (1514) and a map of North America by Alexis Jaillot (1674)-predate France's initial 1683 claim to the Louisiana territory. The map collection extends far beyond the New Orleans region to take in the Gulf Coast as well as eastern North America. Since then considerable additions have been made including a wide range of maps dating from early colonial times to the present.

Acquisition was begun by The Collection's founder, General L. The Historic New Orleans Collection has extensive holdings of significant manuscript and printed maps.

Map of the battle of new orleans