Charles Franois Beautemps-Beaupr was born on 6 August 1766 at Neuville-au-Pont in France. He studied under his relative, the geographer Nicolas Buache, and at the age of nineteen, was entrusted with the work of drawing the charts of the 'Neptune' by the Minister of Marine, the Compte de Fleurieu. In 1791, he was appointed Hydrographer to the French Naval Expedition, 1791-1796 (leader Antoine-Raymond-Joseph Bruni d'Entrecasteaux), sent by the French government to search for the missing French Northwest Passage expedition, 1785-1788 (leader Jean-Franois Galaup, Compte de la Prouse). During the voyage, he conducted Hydrographic surveys and astronomical and geometrical observations, publishing the atlas of the expedition in 1807.
Returning to France in 1796, Beautemps-Beaupr was appointed chief engineer to the Hydrographic Office, where he was employed in the compilation and correction of charts and was instructed by Napoleon to conduct surveys of the French coast, the North Sea, and the Adriatic and other coasts. Between 1816 and 1833, he worked on his atlas Le Pilote Franais, a major work published in six volumes. He died in 1854.
From the guide to the Charles Beautemps-Beaupr collection, 1853, (Scott Polar Research Institute, University of Cambridge)
