Jean Baptiste d’Anville, born in the year of 1697 had carved out his first map at age fifteen and through out his career had published high quality maps. His fine cartography made him one the most famous Map Makers of Modern Era. With his knowledge and excellence Anville carried on the French school of cartography, which was developed by the Sanson and the de L’Isle families
Works of Jean Baptiste d’Anville had a strong foundation of researches, based on the reports and maps of French explorers, traders, and missionaries. During his career, he collected a large cluster of cartographic materials that has been stored for ages. His interest specially lied in the area in and around Asia. Jean Baptiste d’Anville made the first moderately accurate map of China in 1735. For his maps he had also used materials accumulated from French expeditions, which were made during the first half of the 18th century.
The two expeditions to investigate the Red and Arkansas rivers and part of the present Oklahoma by Jean Baptiste Benard de La Harpe had influenced Jean Baptiste d’Anville. In the year of 1732 Anville had also inscribed a map titled as “Carte de la Louisiane”. This map is an accurate work on the area around Mississippi. The brilliance in his works attracted a lot of people like Thomas Jefferson, who bought seven maps by Anville in 1787. Jean died in the year of 1782, but his works are considered to be important in the present day as well.