In 1796, French general and military engineer Georges Henri Victor Collot descended the Ohio and Mississippi rivers on a spying mission from the French government. Returning to France in 1800, Collot died in 1805.

His Voyages dans l’Amérique Septentrionale was published in Paris in 1826, and a copy of the atlas is part of the Hoole Library’s Rare Books collection. We have digitized the atlas in its entirity and it is available online as part of our digital collections. Pictured here are the title page and two plates from the book, one featuring a typical log cabin observed by Collot, and a map of the sources of Mobile Bay and the Yazoo River.