Samuel de Champlain
~1567–1635 · French (Brouage) · Age of Discovery / Colonial Era
Known for: Father of New France—founded Quebec City and established the French colonial presence in North America
Champlain was a navigator, cartographer, and colonizer who made over 20 voyages across the Atlantic. He founded Quebec in 1608, explored as far west as Lake Huron, and established alliances with Huron and Algonquin peoples while fighting alongside them against the Iroquois.
He was a talented mapmaker whose charts of the New England and Canadian coastlines were remarkably accurate. His wife Hélène was 12 when they married (he was approximately 43). He spent his final years governing Quebec, building the foundation for what would become French Canada.
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