A celebrated source for Lewis & Clark: the most important map of the upper Great Plains of the 18th century and one of the most significant maps in United States history.
ANTOINE SOULARD: SURVEYOR-GENERAL
Born in Rochefort, France, Antoine Pierre Soulard (1766 – 1825) became a lieutenant in the French navy. According to 19th century sources, Soulard fled France in 1794 after the Revolution and Reign of Terror and while some reports say Soulard landed in New Orleans and sailed up the Mississippi, others state that he arrived in Marblehead, Massachusetts, crossed Pennsylvania on horseback, floated down the Ohio River on a keelboat, and landed at Ste. Genevieve hoping to find employment amongst the many other French emigrants there. Details of his life gain more claritys after his arrival in Missouri. In February 1794, rumors of an invasion of Spanish Upper Louisiana by French and American troops hurried plans to fortify Ste. Genevieve and Soulard was appointed to supervise the construction of a fort.
Upon completion of the fort, Soulard traveled to St. Louis and met the lieutenant-governor of Upper Louisiana, Zénon Trudeau. With the recommendation of Manuel Gayoso de Lemos, the governor general of Louisiana, Trudeau appointed the twenty-eight year old Soulard the first surveyor-general of Spanish Upper Louisiana on 3 February 1795. He would perform at least 710 surveys from 1795 to 1806 (Soulard’s surveys, or Registre d’Arpentage, are located in the Missouri State Archives). But none of his later work made as significant an impact on the future exploration of the midcontinent as this first survey, famously known in cartographic literature as “The Soulard Map.”
DELINEATING THE MIDCONTINENT
Nicholas Biddle’s publication of the narrative of Lewis and Clark’s expedition in 1814 included the remarkable map drafted by Samuel Lewis from William Clark’s 1810 manuscript. This cartographic cornerstone synopsized the expedition’s many routes, and redefined the understanding of the interior of the continent. Knowledge of this region prior to Lewis and Clark’s travels was limited to a handful of sources, with Guillaume Delisle’s Carte de la Louisiane (1718) being the most well-known and accurate. By the end of the century it could hardly be relied on as an up-to-date portrait of the territory.
In the final decade of the 18th century, the challenge to Spanish claims on the Upper Missouri by intrusive British traders from Pine Fort and other posts along the Assionboine River in southern Canada hastened the need to have the best cartographic data available. Governor-General François Luis Hector Carondelet assumed command of Spanish New Orleans, and Trudeau had charge of St. Louis. Carondelet and Jacques Clamorgan founded the Company of Explorers of the Upper Missouri (better known as the “Missouri Company”) to explore commercial opportunities of the Upper Missouri River. In 1794, Jean Baptiste Truteau, a St. Louis schoolmaster, was tasked with leading an expedition to the Mandans. Knowing little of the route, nor of the destination, and with no useful maps, Truteau set off with inadequate guidance, although it is reported that he sketched charts during his trip, no map directly resulting from that expedition is known. Knowledge in St. Louis of the upper Missouri was “cripplingly poor,” according to W. Raymond Wood, the scholar who has contributed most to our understanding of Soulard’s important role in this era’s cartographic breakthroughs. “In fact, no maps of what was to become the Louisiana Territory were transmitted to the new Spanish governor by his French predecessor, for as late as 1785 Esteban Miró, Carondelet’s predecessor as governor-general of Louisiana, possessed no such document” (Wood, Prologue, p. 54).
Truteau left for the upper Missouri on 7 June 1794 and did not return to St. Louis until about June of 1796. Five months after his departure, Carondelet wrote to his superior in Havana, Captain-General Luis de Casas, that
I have ordered the accompanying map prepared, which has been drawn from the most trustworthy plans that could be obtained since I have taken possession of their government. For all maps printed both in England and in the United States and in France, are absolutely false, especially in regard to the course of the Mississippi and Missouri Rivers; besides which the settlements, both Spanish and American, which have grown up since the printing of those maps, could not be noted therein. (24 November 1794, quoted in Wood, Prologue, p. 55)
The map Carondelet references is no longer with the original documents in Seville, and there is no evidence that it survived. Wood believes that it could not have been drafted by Soulard, since he was not appointed surveyor-general for another two-and-a-half months. Precisely when Soulard began to compile his map is unclear, but it is certain that it provided critical new information about the region that informed subsequent exploration. “Fourteen months after Truteau left St. Louis, and before his return, the Missouri Company dispatched a second and much larger expedition to the upper Missouri River. The James Mackay-John Evans expedition left St. Louis in late August 1795 — the month and year specified on the French copy of Soulard’s map, by which t.mes Soulard had been surveyor-general for about seven months. The extant documents do not.mes ntion Mackay and Evans having been supplied with a map. It was, however, a large expedition … It would have been unreasonable to invest in and dispatch such an expedition — nearly as large as the Lewis and Clark expedition — without the best preparation St. Louis officials could provide. For these reasons, we can be reasonably sure that the final form of the 1795 Soulard map was prepared for this expedition: it is dated the month of their departure, and it was drawn by a cartographer who had been appointed surveyor-general by a partner in the company that sponsored the expedition” (Wood, Prologue, p. 56).
Mackay’s expedition was the most successful of the Spanish expeditions, according to William Goetzmann, and the instructions he gave to his assistant John Evans “were much more imaginative than those of the previous Spanish explorers and were in fact a prototype for the instructions Jefferson issued to Lewis and Clark” (Goetzmann, p. 15).
"The James Mackay-John Evans expedition left St. Louis in late August 1795 ... [W]e can be reasonably sure that the final form of the 1795 Soulard map was prepared for this expedition: it is dated the month of their departure, and it was drawn by a cartographer who had been appointed surveyor-general by a partner in the company that sponsored the expedition.”
A “CARTOGRAPHIC MILESTONE”
No earlier map showed the Upper Great Plains in such precise and correct detail. It was not surpassed until the 1814 publication of Lewis and Clark’s own map, though in some ways Soulard’s is still superior: the Lewis and Clark map, for instance, does not include both Forks of the Platte. It remained the only current resource on Great Plains cartography in the first decade of the 19th century. The most easily recognizable feature of Soulard’s map is the depiction of the Big Bend, or “Grand Detour,” of the Missouri River in central South Dakota “as a grotesquely exaggerated U-shaped bend between the Mandan and Arikara villages. On his map it is as large as the southern part of Lake Winnipeg, whereas on the ground it is only 25 river miles around ... Soulard depicted features both above and below the Grand Detour with relative accuracy, although the river’s course is sadly in error below the Arikaras. The configuration of the Missouri above the Mandans is remarkably accurate, although the Yellowstone River is conspicuously absent. The chart nonetheless is a ‘cartographic milestone,’ surpassing in detail and accuracy all other contemporary maps showing the same terrain” (Wood, Prologue, p. 52). It includes a notable first: the earliest representation of the Grand Detour, and it is perhaps the earliest to show the forks of the Platte River.
No earlier map showed the Upper Great Plains in such precise and correct detail. It remained the only current resource on Great Plains cartography in the first decade of the 19th century.
St Louis. While Clark and the Corps of Discovery were training over the winter of 1803, Meriwether Lewis was gathering supplies in St. Louis. He also spoke to fur traders up the Missouri River and obtained maps from earlier explorers. This is where Lewis met Soulard and gained access to his cartographic library.
Approximate location of Camp River Dubois, where William Clark and the Corps of Discovery trained.
Big Bend, or the “Grand Detour,” of the Missouri River in central South Dakota. In one of the earliest depictions of the Grand Detour, Soulard exaggerates its size between the Mandan and Arikara villages. On his map it is as large as the southern part of Lake Winnipeg, whereas on the ground it is only 25 river miles around. Soulard depicted features both above and below the Grand Detour with relative accuracy, although the river’s course is sadly in error below the Arikaras.
The Mandan Village. The Mandans historically lived along both banks of the Upper Missouri River and two of its tributaries—the Heart and Knife Rivers—in present day North and South Dakota.
The English post and three Spanish posts on the upper Missouri River. Soulard’s map was meant to illustrate the “usurpations” of the English and warned of their designs to further encroach in Spanish territory.
The signature of Baron de Carondelet. This is the only version of the map with his signature, thus directly connecting his important report to Spanish authorities with Soulard’s map.
Soulard’s map is perhaps the earliest to show the forks of the Platte River. The Platte is a tributary of the Missouri River, which itself is a tributary of the Mississippi River.
Santa Fe. At the t.mes Soulard made his map, Santa Fe was a kingdom of the Spanish Empire and New Spain.
Fort Carondolet was located along the Osage River in Missouri. It was constructed in 1795 as an early fur trading post in Spanish territory by the Chateau family.
As Soulard’s map had defined political aims, intending to show English and French encroachment on Spanish territory, he clearly marked established regions, such as the “English Possessions” here in Hudson’s Bay.
Assiniboine settlements. Lewis and Clark’s expeditionary journals mention the Assiniboine, whom the party heard about while returning from Fort Clatsop down the Missouri River. These explorers did not encounter or come in direct contact with the tribe.
Soulard references Jonathan Carver’s route, made between September 1766 and August 1767. It is probably derived directly from Carver’s own narrative.
Dakota and Lakota settlements—named Sioux by Soulard. They had crossed the Missouri by 1750. Their initial contact with Lewis and Clark was a standoff, and they refused the explorers’ passage upstream.
The title cartouche of this original map is the finest of all of the extant versions, and like the map itself reflects the high quality of Soulard’s draughtsmanship that was intended for discerning eyes in Spain.
Nootka Sound, shown both by this name and his historical name “King George’s Sound.”
Soulard references the observations of James Mackay made in 1784-88. These were important first-hand observations both for Soulard’s map and the planning of Lewis & Clark’s Corps of Discovery.
New Albion was the name of the continental area north of Mexico claimed by Sir Francis Drake for England when he landed on the North American west coast in 1579. Soulard references Drake just below.
Soulard carefully marked James Mackay’s routes, noting here where he wintered in 1786.
“Manantial desconocido”: source unknown. Travel in the interior of the continent required that full courses of the rivers were mapped. Throughout the map Soulard has marked where sources remain unlocated.
Soulard’s helpful legend helps read the map: he shows the symbols for both nomadic and settled peoples, and identifies abbreviations for tribes, mountains, rivers, lakes, forts, and villages.
Fort York in present day Toronto originated from a garrison established by John Graves Simcoe in 1793. Anglo-American tensions resulted in the fort being further fortified and designated as an official British Army post in 1798.
THE VERSIONS OF THE MAP
There are five known versions of Soulard’s map. The first is an unfinished prototype sketch in Seville. The present version is the once-lost original finished map referenced by Carondelet in the report he sent to Spanish authorities. Following these are three copies, one each in Spanish (now at Harvard), French (Bibliothèque du Service Hydrographique, Paris) and English (Coe collects ion, Yale, with annotations by William Clark). “The prototype is unimportant,” states Wood, “and with the original map now available, the Spanish copy is redundant, and the French and English copies simply illustrate its later history.”
This original was once believed to be lost but was rediscovered in a collects ion of late-eighteenth century Spanish manuscript maps in a private collects ion in Spain. It was sold in our London rooms in 1984, purchased by W. Graham Arader III and then sold to the Karpeles Manuscript Library. Subsequent scholarship has confirmed that it was this version of the map that Carondelet attached to his report and sent on January 8, 1796. In it he referred to a “topographical map” illustrating the “usurpations” of the English and warned of their designs to further encroach in Spanish territory. Therefore, the reappearance of this cartographic landmark “gives us the original map, endorsed by Carondelet, and the chart from which, in turn, the Spanish, French, and English copies derive” (ibid, p. 57).
The connection between the map commissioned by Carondolet and the previously known surviving versions of the map was only conjectured prior to this map’s rediscovery. Carondolet never gave the name of the cartographer in any contemporary document, and on no copy of the Soulard map does Carondolet’s name appear. The discovery of this version therefore affirmed the connection between the two men, and confirmed that Carondolet was in fact referring to Soulard’s map in his reports.
"... no part of the map appears to be derived directly from existing charts.”
SOULARD'S SOURCES
Aubrey Diller, studying later copies of the Soulard map, described it as “virtually the first original map of the [Missouri] river since Delisle’s famous Carte de la Louisiane of 1718” and Wood agreed: “[Diller’s] assessment is correct, for no part of the map appears to be derived directly from existing charts” (Wood, Prologue, p. 62). The Soulard map misrepresents some details that had been correctly delineated in Delisle’s map, but the configuration of the Missouri basin is superior. British sources, rather than French or Spanish, are more apparent in Soulard’s work. Since James Mackay arrived in St. Louis in 1791, it is presumed that much of the detail of northern rivers and British posts derived from him, and Diller demonstrated that the map shows central Canada even more fully and correctly than any other source. This is likely a result of Soulard having conversations with Mackay and gaining insights from his deep knowledge of the region. Soulard also shows Jonathan Carver’s route between September 1766 and August 1767, probably derived directly from Carver’s own narrative.
SOULARD AND LEWIS & CLARK: GUIDING THE MOST IMPORTANT EXPEDITION IN AMERICAN HISTORY
Although quite a great deal was known about the Missouri valley before 1814, the distortion of cartographic details were impediments to mounting large expeditions. “But Soulard’s map, created nearly a decade before Lewis and Clark’s transcontinental journey, most closely approximates reality” (ibid, p. 47). While Lewis and Clark also had two important eyewitness maps, one from John Thomas Evans and the other drafted under the direction of James Mackay by Nicolas de Finiel, “it is difficult to overestimate the importance of [Soulard’s] map.” Soulard’s chart is an important representation of the Great Plains of North America and their environs at the close of the eighteenth century, a view that extended from the southern plains deep into western Canada” (ibid, p. 49-50).
The English copy at Yale bears two notes in William Clark’s hand, and its title states that it was “Copied from the Original Spanish MS. Map.” It is not known who drafted Lewis and Clark’s copy, nor how they acquired it, but we do know that.mes riwether Lewis met with Soulard in December 1803. Lewis’s consultation with Soulard was “an important.mes eting for gaining geographical information … Although Soulard did not have [John] Hay's first-hand familiarity with the upriver region, he had a store of cartographic items that would be most useful to the expedition [the fur trader, John Hay, had given Lewis a copy of a map he had from the Mackay-Evans expedition of 1795-97]. In fact, Soulard gave Lewis a manuscript embracing a portion of the Mississippi, the Missouri from its junction with this river to the mouth of the Osages, and the last named river in its whole extent Lewis obtained permission to copy the map from a local merchant who owned it” (Moulton, Atlas, p. 5).
Lewis apparently found Soulard an amiable and willing informant, but sensed that Soulard was fearful of retribution from the French government if he permitted Lewis to copy the Spanish census data of 1800. But it is posited that Lewis may have obtained two copies of maps from Soulard’s extensive collects ion at the t.mes of their meeting. This first was a map of the Mississippi Country, now in the National Archives (shown in the 2003 touring exhibition Lewis and Clark: Across the Divide, the catalogue for which quotes Lewis’s letter to Jefferson forwarding news of his meeting with Soulard. See Gilman, p. 359). The other map, described by Lewis as ‘a General Map of Upper Louisiana’ was reproduced in the Thwaites atlas (1908, map 2) and in the Moulton atlas (1983, map 4)” (Beckman, et al, The Literature of the Lewis and Clark Expedition, pp. 38-39). That was presumably a retained copy of the 1795 Soulard map as this Spanish original had been forwarded by Carondelet seven years earlier. Basing his conclusion on the similarities of the cartouches, Carl Wheat felt that the English version now at Yale must have been copied from the Spanish original. John L. Allen noted that Soulard’s map may have influenced the perceptions of western geography held by Lewis and Clark, particularly the distance from the upper reaches of the Missouri River to the mouth of the Columbia River (see John T. Allen, Passage Through the Garden, pp. 148-150).
Though widely known through its copies, the reappearance of this original of Soulard’s pioneering map—the most important map of the Missouri valley of the 18th century and one of the most significant in all of American history—reinvigorated scholarship into its critical role in the exploration of the American interior.
REFERENCE:
Allen, John L. “Geographical Knowledge & American Images of the Louisiana Territory.” In: Western Historical Quarterly, vol. 2, no. 2, April 1971, pp. 151-170.
Allen, John L. Passage Through the Garden: Lewis and Clark and the Image of the American Northwest. Urbana: U of Illinois Press, 1975, pp. 148-150.
[Arader Galleries]. W. Graham Aarader III. Highly Important Manuscript Maps of America. Catalogue No. 49. 1984. Introduction by Henry G. Taliaferro, Head of the Map Department. The present map is item 1 in the catalogue, listed under the header: “The Most Important Eighteenth Century Map of the Missouri Valley.”
Danisi, Thomas C. and W. Raymond Wood. “Lewis and Clark’s Route Map: James MacKay’s Map of the Missouri River.” In: Western Historical Quarterly, vol. 35, no. 1, Spring 2004, pp. 53-72.
Diller, Aubrey. “A new map of the Missouri River drawn in 1795.” In: Imago Mundi, 1955, vol. 12, pp. 175-180. Illustrating the French copy at the Bibliothèque du Service Hydrographique, Paris.
Erickson, Doug; Jeremy Skinner, and Paul Merchant. The Literature of the Lewis and Clark Expedition. Portland, OR: Lewis & Clark College, 2003.
Gilman, Carolyn. Lewis and Clark: Across the Great Divide. Washington and London: Smithsonian Books / St. Louis: Missouri Historical Society, 2003.
Goetzmann, William H. Exploration and Empire: The Explorer and the Scientist in the Winning of the American West. Austin: Texas State Historical Association, 1993.
Moulton, Gary, editor. Atlas of the Lewis & Clark Expedition. Lincoln and London: University of Nebraska Press, 1983. No. 4 (the English copy possessed by Lewis & Clark)
Wheat, Carl. Mapping the Trans-Mississippi West, nos. 234 and 235A (illustrating the Spanish copy at Harvard).
Witte, Kevin C. “In the Footsteps of the Third Spanish Expedition: James Mackay and John T. Evans’s Impact on the Lewis and Clark Expedition.” In: Great Plains Quarterly, vol. 26, no. 2, Spring 2006, pp. 85-98.
Wood, W. Raymond. “The Missouri River Basin on the 1795 Soulard Map: A Cartographic Landmark.” In: Great Plains Quarterly, vol. 16, no. 3, Summer 1993, pp. 183-198.
Wood, W. Raymond. Prologue to Lewis & Clark: The Mackay and Evans Expedition. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 2003.
Wood, W. Raymond. “The Earliest Map of the Mandan Heartland: Notes on the Jarvis and Mackay 1791 Map.” In: Plains Anthropologist: Journal of the Plains Anthropological Society, vol. 55, no. 216, November 2010, pp. 255-276.