WESTERN UNITED STATES & CANADA 1797 LA PÉROUSE LARGE UNUSUAL ANTIQUE SEA CHART

Carte Générale d'une partie de la Côte du Nord-Ouest de l'Amérique reconnue par les Frégates Françaises la Boussole et l'Astrolabe. Assujettie au point journalier de la Frégate la Boussole determiné astronomiquement par M. Dagelet.

Description: Striking and highly detailed fine 1797 large fine example of Jean François de Galaup, comte de La Pérouse earliest obtainable printed copper engraved sea chart or nautical map of West Coast of North America, extending from Mount St. Elias, Alaska in the north to Monterey Bay in the south, published in the Atlas du Voyage de la Perouse.
 
The map exhibits excellent detail along the coast, tracking La Perouse's voyage on a nearly daily basis. The map also highlights the incomplete nature of La Perouse's survey of the coastline, with many areas left blank, with the expectation of follow up voyages. Topographical details are included where observed by La Perouse.
 
The map was created by Joseph Lepaute Dagelet and Jean-Francois de Galaup, comte de La Perouse, and published in 1797. It is part of the "Atlas du Voyage de la Perouse". The map, engraved by Bouclet and scripted by Herault, is an atlas map or chart map from the publication by L'Imprimerie de la Republique.
 
The map illustrates a section of the northwest coast of North America, covering the region from Mount St. Elias to Monterey Bay. Its scale is 1:6,600,000, and it employs hachures to depict relief. The map accurately traces the route of La Perouse's expedition, with the prime meridian set in Paris, reflecting the French origins and the global exploration efforts of the time.
 
The map was part of the broader efforts by La Perouse to continue the exploratory work of Captain Cook. La Perouse set sail from France in 1785, but his expedition faced a tragic end when he was shipwrecked in 1788. Despite this, his narrative and the associated maps were preserved and published posthumously.
 
In terms of composition, the map is engraved and uses a monochromatic palette typical of the period, which emphasizes geographical features and the route of exploration without additional color. This choice reflects both the technological limitations and stylistic preferences of late 18th-century cartography.
 
Culturally and historically, the map is significant as it represents European efforts to explore and document the Pacific Coast of North America. The map captures a moment in the Age of Enlightenment when exploration was driven by scientific curiosity and national prestige.
 
Overall, this map is a valuable historical artifact that provides insight into 18th-century exploration and cartography, illustrating both the geographical knowledge and the exploratory ambitions of France during this period.Publication History
 
La Perouse died tragically on a shipwreck near the Solomon Islands. His journals were shipped back to Europe from Australia before the shipwreck and posthumously published in 1797, along with an accompanying atlas volume, from which this map was drawn, Atlas du voyage de La Perouse. A similar looking map was published by the order of Mexican president Guadalupe Victoria in 1825 but is vastly updated over the present original publication.
 
References: Phillips, 688; Howes. U.S.iana, 93; Mickwitz. A.E. Nordenskiold Collection ... annotated catalogue of maps made up to 1800, v.2 no. 133.
 
Source: Galaup, J. F. (Comte de La Perouse), Atlas du Voyage de la Perouse, (Paris) 1797. 

Date: 1797 ( undated )

Dimension: Paper size approx.: cm 58,9 x 86,9

Condition: Very strong and dark impression on good paper. Paper with chains. Map uncolored. Corners partially missind. Small foxing and browning. Map folded. Conditions are as you can see in the images. 

Mapmaker: Jean François de Galaup, Comte de La Pérouse (August 23, 1741 - 1788) was a French naval officer, navigator, and explorer active in the later part of the 18th century. Born into a noble family of Albi, France, La Perouse entered the navel college of Brest at just 15. At seventeen La Perouse made his first naval voyage, a supply expedition to the fort of Louisbourg in New France. He later participated in a number of naval battles, mostly against the English, and eventually rose to the rank of Commodore. In 1782 he captured the English forts Prince of Wales and York, making a name for himself back in France. Following the British defeat at the end of the American Revolutionary War, La Perouse was appointed by Louis XVI to lead an expedition of discovery circumnavigating the globe. The goal of the expedition was to complete and correct the maps of the Pacific drawn by Captain Cook. La Perouse's two frigates, the Astrolabe and the Boussole rounded Cape Horn and entered the Pacific in 1785. Crisscrossing the Pacific from Macau and Japan to Alaska, Vancouver, and the Hawaiian Islands Perouse made numerous discoveries and adding considerably to the cartographic corpus, particularly along the coast of British Columbia and around Japan. In Australia La Perouse sent his last letter back to France containing all of his maps and research. Tragically, on the return voyage La Perouse ran into a violent storm which left both of his frigates shipwrecked on the Polynesian island of Vanikoro, part of the Santa Cruz Group. Some of the survivors of the shipwrecks seem to have managed to live on the island for years afterwards. As late as 1790 the English Captain Edward Edwards saw smoke signals coming from Vanikoro but foolishly declined to investigate. Expeditions in 2005 and in 2008 identified the remains of both ships and retuned numerous artifacts from the ill-fated expedition to France. The importance of La Perouse's discoveries was, unfortunately, not seriously appreciated until many years later because, when the La Perouse maps were finally published in 1797, newer more accurate maps of the region were already in circulation. Nonetheless, La Perouse remains of the titans of Pacific exploration and he work paved the path forward for all future expeditions to the region.

Joseph Lepaute Dagelet (1751–1788) was a French astronomer, clockmaker and mathematician who accompanied Lapérouse on his scientific circumnavigation, in the course of which he perished in the final shipwreck of the expedition. Dagelet's astronomical sightings gave precision to the maps posthumously published in the official Atlas du Voyage de la Perouse (Paris: L'Imprimerie de la Republique, An V, 1797). Young Dagelet arrived in Paris in 1767, welcomed by his uncles the renowned clockmakers Jean-André and Jean-Baptiste Lepaute, who held the brevet horlogers du Roi. Through his aunt, Nicole-Reine Lepaute, wife of Jean-André, he discovered his aptitude for astronomy. From his arrival until 1772 he studied in the observatory of the Collège Mazarin, where he was guided by Joseph Jérôme Lefrançois de Lalande. In 1773 he departed for the South Seas with the expedition of Yves Joseph de Kerguelen de Trémarec; on his return he was made professor of mathematics at the École Militaire, Paris. Dagelet is known particularly for having calculated the distance between the center of Mercury and the Sun and for his map of the solar eclipse of 1778. Dagelet discovered WY Sagittae, a nova in Sagitta (27-29 July 1783) and was a scientific observer of the balloon ascent of Jacques Alexandre César Charles from the Champ de Mars, Paris, 27 August 1783. He presented his observations of the planets and stars to the Académie des sciences and was received as adjoint and then named astronomer to the Academy in 1785, the year he embarked at Brest on the fatal expedition. After extensively mapping and recording the coastlines of North America, Japan, Korea and Siberia, Lapérouse was directed by the French government to go to Botany Bay to observe the founding of the British Colony by the First Fleet. On 26 January 1788 Lapérouse arrived at Botany Bay, just as the British were leaving for Port Jackson. The French ships stayed at Botany Bay for six weeks and built a stockade, observatory and a garden for fresh produce on the La Perouse peninsula. At Botany Bay Dagelet undertook calculations on map position of Botany Bay, carried out astronomical observations and met with William Dawes at Port Jackson. Dawes volunteered for service with the First Fleet and sailed on the Sirius. From February 1788, he was employed on shore to build an observatory at Dawes Point. Following this meeting Dagelet sent a letter to Dawes (1762-1836) with advice to Dawes on setting up his observatory, recent work on the fluctuations of the Earth's magnetic field and calculations on maps positions of Botany Bay. The island of Dagelet, named in his honour, is now known by its Korean name, Ulleungdo. In Alaska, Mount Dagelet still bears his name.