Fun with Maps ISSUE 2025-079

By Steve Kovacs (Introduction by Chuck Gibson)

LOVELAND, OH (May 2, 2025) – In today’s edition of Fun with Maps, we return to a historic land purchase gaining control of the “Big Easy.”

The Louisiana Purchase

We have reported before about the Louisiana Purchase, whereby the US acquired a huge territory stretching well into today’s Canada, down the Mississippi to the Gulf on May 2, 1803.

It was Thomas Jefferson’s long-term goal to gain control of the Mississippi and specifically control of New Orleans.

James Madison was tasked to negotiate with the French, who relatively quickly agreed to sell the land in advance of a potential war with England.  Opposing the purchase was Alexander Hamilton and his gang.

About 30 percent of today’s continental US is part of the Louisiana Purchase.

Here is Myra Barnes’ pictorial map of the French Quarter in New Orleans in 1942.

Steve Kovacs and his wife Theresa reside in Loveland, Ohio where they raised their two children. He is a passionate collector of antique maps.

Visit his antique map boutique world-on-paper online. Watch for his daily feature Steve Kovacs: Fun with Maps here on Loveland Beacon.