Scope and Contents:
This collection is comprised of voyageur contracts between Sieur Joseph Trottier Desruisseaux and fur traders for travel from Montreal to Illinois Country.
Joseph Trottier Desruisseaux (born 1688) was a fur trader and landowner of the New France island of Ile Perrot, just west of the island of Montreal in what is now the Canadian province of Quebec.
The collection consists of two voyageur contracts for fur traders to lead canoe trips from Montreal, where the contracts were signed, to Illinois a Tamarois, payable in trade goods. The first is a contract between Joseph Desruisseaux and Joseph Leduc, and the second is a contract between Joseph Desruisseaux and Jean Fourneau dit Brindamour. Both contracts are in French; English translations are included in the collection.
The Illinois History and Lincoln Collections purchased these items in 2018 with support from Library Friends. They were previously in the manuscript collection of Canadian author and bibliographer Lawrence Lande.