Scope and Content Note
The papers of Joseph Nicolas Nicollet (1786-1843) span the years 1797-1843. The collection contains correspondence, journals, maps and sketches, notes, printed matter, research material, and writings and reports. Much of the material is in French.
The correspondence consists primarily of letters to Nicollet, with the exception of some photostatic copies of letters Nicollet wrote to Rush Nutt, a physician and scientist in Mississippi, regarding Nicollet’s study of the Chippewa and Sioux languages. Several letters are from bishops and prominent individuals in the early American Catholic Church, including Simon William Gabriel Bruté de Rémur, Bishop of Vincennes (Indiana); John England, Bishop of Charleston; Jean-Louis-Anne-Madeleine Lefebvre de Cheverus, Bishop of Boston; Michael Portier, Bishop of Mobile; Joseph Rosati, Bishop of St. Louis; Pierce Connelly; and Louis Régis Deluol. Scientists include Jacob Whitman Bailey, David W. Gobel, Ethan Allen Hitchcock, Elias Loomis, H. H. Sherwood, and Sears Cook Walker. Cartographers represented in the collection are Edmund M. Blunt, J. D. Graham, and F. R. Hassler. Nicollet also corresponded with state geologists Charles T. Jackson of Maine and Gerard Troost of Tennessee. Alfred Mordecai, drafter of the first United States ordnance manual, wrote requesting Nicollet to design a form for standardizing meteorological, geological, and mineralogical data reports. A letter from Joseph Plympton, the commander of Fort Snelling, Minnesota, suggests ways to develop the land between the St. Croix River and St. Anthony Falls, an area which is now Minneapolis.
The journals consist of astronomical observations, expedition diaries, and geographical and meteorological data. Some of the astronomical observations, dated 1832, were made from the White House in Washington, D.C. The expedition diaries document Nicollet’s exploration of what is now Minnesota, Missouri, South Dakota, and Wisconsin and include detailed sketches of the routes. The geographical observations include calculations of latitudes, longitudes, and altitudes from various points. In 1839 Nicollet published Meteorological Observations. The collection contains the published copy along with a draft and notes.
The collection contains many of Nicollet’s detailed sketch maps of the upper Mississippi and Missouri river basins and his notes on various scientific subjects. Writings and reports primarily consist of a draft of Nicollet’s report that accompanied his Map of the Hydrographical Basin of the Upper Mississippi River. Also included are Francis A. Chardon’s journals from Fort Clark, North Dakota; Regis Loisel’s account of the upper Missouri River; and excerpts from the writings of Meriwether Lewis, William Clark, and Zebulon Montgomery Pike.