Essays relating to the Jolliet-Marquette expedition, 1673

Published in 1953 under the Pro Manuscripto imprint, this scholarly collection was authored by Francis Borgia Steck, a Franciscan historian and long-time professor at The Catholic University of America. The essays were compiled to challenge the prevailing historiography surrounding the 1673 expedition of Louis Jolliet and Jacques Marquette, specifically questioning the authenticity of the official account attributed to Marquette. Steck argued that the documentation had been significantly altered or fabricated by later editors to emphasize the Jesuit role in the exploration of the Mississippi River.

The work reflects Steck’s meticulous, if controversial, devotion to archival rigor and his skepticism toward established colonial narratives. Designed as a scholarly monograph, the text adopts a dense, academic style intended for fellow historians and specialists in North American colonial history. While the book met with considerable professional resistance at the time of its release due to its radical challenges to foundational historical texts, it remains a notable example of the intense mid-century debates regarding the reliability of early missionary journals.