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Michigan Maps Research Guide

To map Michigan is to chart the Great Lakes.  Joseph Le Caron, a Recollect friar, discovered Lake Huron in 1615 having arrived with Champlain’s exploration party.  Samuel de Champlain founded Quebec City in 1608 and along with other explorers such as Étienne Brulé and Jean Nicolet traversed the Great Lakes basin.  In this era of exploration neither France nor England held hegemony over Europe, much less the world.  Trade goods desired from the Orient were controlled by Middle Eastern powers.  Land was desirable, the spread of Christianity was a mission for the religious but finding a trade route circumventing the Mediterranean powers was the goal for western European rulers.  By the time of his 1673 – 1674 map, Joliet would write at the bottom, “The Red Sea is west of California, from where we can go to Peru, Japan and China” thus identifying a fruitful if failed mission.  For Michigan 1688 was a strong year for cartography with the publication of a work by Franciscan monk, cartographer, and cosmographer Vincenzo Coronelli in Paris.[1]  This work was  followed by New Voyages by Mr. Le Baron de Lahontan published in 1703.[2][3][4]   Upon the realization that there was no shortcut to the east, map cartographers turned their attention to the routes and resources in the newly controlled land that would become Michigan.

Michigan Maps Bibliography

Checklist of printed maps of the Middle West to 1900.1981 - 1983.
LIB OF MICH MICHIGAN 2N  Z6027.U5 C34z

Colby, Lila. Michigan state, county and city atlases. 1963.
LIB OF MICH MICHIGAN 2N  Z6027.U52 M52z 1963

Cumming, John. Preliminary checklist of 19th century lithographs of Michigan cities and towns. 1969.
LIB OF MICH MICHIGAN 2N  NE2310.M5 .C8z 1969

Kebler, Geneva and Elizabeth Rademacher. List of cartographic records of the Michigan Department of Conservation, Lands Division. 1962.
LIB OF MICH - MICH DOCS 2S   Z6027.M5 M5 1962

Wheat, Renville. Maps of Michigan and the Great Lakes. 1965.
LIB OF MICH MICHIGAN 2N  G 1410. W47 1965

Wheat, Renville. Supplemental list, maps of Michigan and the Great Lakes. 1966.
LIB OF MICH MICHIGAN 2N  G 1410 .W47z 1965 supp.

Michigan Maps

Hunt, Don & Mary. Hunts' map guide to Michigan's Upper Peninsula. 2006.
LIB OF MICH MICHIGAN FLAT FILE 2N  G4112.U6 2006 .H8

Joliet, Louis. Nouvelle decouverte de plusieurs nations dans la Nouvelle France en l'année 1673 et 1674. 1973.
LIB OF MICH MICHIGAN FLAT FILE 2N  Undersize G3300 1674 .J65 1973

Mapping Detroit: land, community, and shaping a city. 2015.
LIB OF MICH MICHIGAN 2N  F574.D4 M377 2015

Mapping in Michigan and the Great Lakes region.2007.
LIB OF MICH MICHIGAN 2N  GA431 .M37 2007

Michigan: 1969 happy motoring guide. 1968.
LIB OF MICH MICHIGAN FLAT FILE 2N  G4110 1968 .M534 

Great Lakes Maps

Canadian Hydrographic Service, Department of Fisheries and the Environment. Great Lakes : catalogue of nautical charts and related publications = Grands Lacs : catalogue des cartes marines et des publications connexes. 1984.
LIB OF MICH MICHIGAN FLAT FILE 2N  G3311.P5 1983 .C3 1984

Jefferys, Thomas. North America from the French of Mr. D'Anville : improved with the back settlements of Virginia and course of Ohio, illustrated with geographical and historical remarks. 1940.
LIB OF MICH MICHIGAN FLAT FILE 2N  Undersize G3300 1755 .J443 1940z

Karpinski, Louis Charles. Maps of famous cartographers depicting North America: an historical atlas of the Great Lakes and Michigan, with bibliography of the printed maps of Michigan. 1977.
LIB OF MICH MICHIGAN 2N   Z6027.M62 K2 1977z

L'Isle, Guillaume de. Carte du Canada ou de la Nouvelle France et des decouvertes qui y ont été faites : dressée sur plusieurs observations et sur un grand nombre de relations imprimées ou manuscrites. 1952.
LIB OF MICH MICHIGAN FLAT FILE 2N  G3400 1703 .L57 1952

Mitchell, John. Map of the British colonies in North America : with the roads, distances, limits, and extent of the settlements, humbly inscribed to the Right Honourable the Earl of Halifax, and the other Right Honourable the Lords Commissioners for Trade & Plantations. 1775.
LIB OF MICH MICHIGAN FLAT FILE 2N  Undersize G3300 1775 .M5a

Tanner, Helen Hornbeck. Atlas of Great Lakes Indian history. 1987.
LIB OF MICH MICHIGAN 2N  E78.G7 A87 1987 c.2

Highways, Byways and roads

BARNETT, LEROY. Drive Down Memory Lane: The Named State and Federal Highways of Michigan. 2004.
LIB OF MICH MICHIGAN 2N  HE356.M5 B856 2004

County road system. 1911.
LIB OF MICH MICH DOCS OFFICIAL  TE24.M5 C68 1911

Highways and byways. 1945 - 1949.
LIB OF MICH MICHIGAN PERIODICALS 2S     HE355.A3 H54

Ingram, Tammy. Dixie Highway: road building and the making of the Modern South, 1900-1930. 2014.
LIB OF MICH MICHIGAN 2N  TE25.5.D49 I64 2014

Michigan Road Builders Association. People movers: 50 years of highway progress, 1928-1978. 1978.
LIB OF MICH MICHIGAN 2N  TE 1 .M5z

Updated 01/16/2019


[1] http://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/btv1b6700078b/f1.item.zoom

[2] 1735 edition, LIB OF MICH RARE MICH 4N  F1030 .L34 1735

[3] https://archive.org/details/nouveauxvoyagesd22laho

[4] Mackinac in 1688 (From Lahontan's Nouveaux Voyages.)" Louisiana Digital Library