Jacques Nicolas Bellin

Jacques Nicolas Bellin (1703 – 1772) was a French hydrographer, geographer, and intellectual who worked for the Ministère de la Marine from age 18. Born in Paris, Bellin was appointed to the hydrographic office of the French Navy in 1741, rising quickly through the ranks to become its chief mapmaker. He was appointed to the Académie de Marine and the Royal Society of London. 

During his long career, Bellin developed new and very accurate systems for compiling coastal charts, and he became one of the most copied cartographers of the 18th century. Over the course of fifty years, Bellin produced a large number of maps for the Ministère de la Marine. His maps of Canada and French territories in North America (New France, Acadia, Louisiana) were particularly valuable because they helped secure navigation on the St. Lawrence River and formed the cartographic basis for French claims of the Great Lakes region and Mississippi River Valley. He died at Versailles.

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