The Maurepas Collection
Jean-Fréderic Phélypeaux, comte de Maurepas (1701-1781), served for twenty-six years as France's Secretary of the Navy and thirty-four years as Secretary of the Royal Household of Louis XV. As naval minister and liaison to the king, Maurepas served as a clearing-house for a great quantity of often detailed information relayed from all over Europe and the Americas, from land and shipboard, and from men of diverse occupations, rank, and social status. The Maurepas papers closely document naval operations during a period in which France waged a protracted sea war against England while trying to maintain the dynamic colonial and commercial expansion that characterized the first decades of the eighteenth-century.
Processing of the Maurepas papers and creation of the web site were made possible by a grant from a United States Department of Education Title II-C Grant: "Strengthening Research Library Resources."
Guide to the Maurepas Collection
Selection of Images from the Maurepas Collection