The University of Maine at Fort Kent is hosting an exhibit that features more than 40 maps of Acadian heritage.
The maps were collected from around the world and are the result of a project started more than 25 years ago by Jacques LaPointe, a Franciscan priest and native of the Saint John Valley. They span more than 300 years of discovery of the New World from 1522 to 1842.
According to a report in the Bangor Daily News, “The collection includes several maps drawn in the late 1730s and early 1740s depicting battle plans and strategic military information around the siege of Louisbourg when a New England colonial force and the British fleet captured what was then the capital of the French territory in what is now Cape Breton Island.”
The most recent maps in the collection are from the early 1800s and show an area claimed by the United States for land in Quebec and Britain’s claim to land in Mars Hill.
Father LaPointe said, “Maps about Acadia and the Atlantic Coast are increasingly sought after in the field of Acadian studies. I am delighted to be among the new researchers-geographers of colonial and modern Acadie.”
You can read more about this exhibit that runs until January 2017 on the University of Maine at Fort Kent’s website.
