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Joseph Nicollet

French geographer, astronomer, and mathematician

For Jean Nicollet de Bellesborne, see Jean Nicolet.

Joseph Nicollet
Portrait and autograph of Nicollet
Born	Joseph Nicolas Nicollet (1786-07-24)July 24, 1786 Cluses, Savoy, France
Died	September 11, 1843(1843-09-11) (aged 57) Washington, D.C., United States
Resting place	Congressional Cemetery
Nationality	French
Other names	Jean-Nicolas Nicollet
Occupation(s)	Explorer, mathematician
Known for	Cartography of the Mississippi River

Joseph Nicolas Nicollet (July 24, 1786 – September 11, 1843), also known as Jean-Nicolas Nicollet, was a French geographer, astronomer, and mathematician known for mapping the Upper Mississippi River basin during the 1830s. Nicollet led three expeditions in the region between the Mississippi and Missouri Rivers, primarily in Minnesota, South Dakota, and North Dakota.

Before emigrating to the United States, Nicollet was a professor of mathematics at Collège Louis-le-Grand, and a professor and astronomer at the Paris Obse

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Joseph N. Nicollet

Joseph N. Nicollet (1786-1843) was a scientist with the sensitivities of an artist. Born in France and trained as an astronomer, Nicollet arrived in Minnesota in 1836 and explored the upper reaches of the Mississippi River. In 1838, he was hired by the U.S. Government to prepare the first detailed map of the area between the Mississippi and Missouri Rivers and made expeditions to Pipestone, Minnesota (1838), Spirit Lake, Iowa (1838) and Devil’s Lake, North Dakota (1839). On his expeditions, he made many determinations of latitude, longitude and elevation, and both he and German botanist Charles Geyer, made extensive notes on the plants of the area, lakes and rivers and a range of geographical features. Nicollet and Geyer were very much in love with the landscape of the prairie-forest border and this is evident in many of their journal entries and sketch maps, housed at the Library of Congress, Smithsonian Archives, or National Archives. Nicollet, in particular, was very conscious of the changes that would soon follow his explorations

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Quick Info

Born

29 July 1786
Cluses, Savoy, France

Died

11 September 1843
Washington, D.C., USA

Summary

Joseph Nicolas Nicollet was a French cartographer, astronomer and mathematician known for his expeditions to map the USA.

Biography

Jean-Nicolas Nicollet is also known as Joseph Nicolas Nicollet. He was educated at the college in Cluses where his favourite subject was mathematics. In 1805, at the age of nineteen, Nicollet became an assistant teacher of mathematics in Chambery. Wishing to further his education, he went to Paris and attended the École Normale Supérieur. He taught in Paris for a brief period before, in 1817, becoming secretary and librarian at the Paris Observatory. At the Observatory he continued his education, studying under Laplace. He continued teaching mathematics and, in 1818, he gives his posts as Astronomer attached to the Royal Observatory in Paris and Professor of Mathematics at the College of Louis-Le-Grand.

Nicollet rapidly made a fine reputation for himself both as a teacher and as a mathematical astronomer at the Observator