Bradley, Abraham, Jr. (21 February 1767– May 1838), public administrator and topographer, was born in Litchfield, Connecticut, the son of Abraham Bradley, a public officer, and Hannah Baldwin. Bradley grew up in Litchfield, graduated from Tapping Reeve’s well-known law school, and was admitted to the bar in 1791. For a brief period he practiced law in Luzerne County, Pennsylvania, where he also served as a judge. During this time he met and married Hannah Smith, with whom he had eight children. Though Bradley possessed an excellent knowledge of the law, he did not find legal work congenial because it called for a good deal of public speaking, a skill that he never acquired....
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Bradley, Abraham, Jr. (1767-1838), public administrator and topographer
Richard R. John
Article
Darton, Nelson Horatio (1865-1948), geological mapper, groundwater specialist, and bibliographer
Ellis L. Yochelson
Darton, Nelson Horatio (17 December 1865–28 February 1948), geological mapper, groundwater specialist, and bibliographer, was born in Brooklyn, New York, the son of William Darton, Jr., a shipbuilder and civil engineer, and Caroline Matilda Thayer. Darton was a self-trained geologist who dropped out of public school before the age of thirteen to apprentice as a chemist in his uncle’s business. He became a member of the American Chemical Society at age sixteen and shortly thereafter started his own business, selling distilled water. As a practical chemist he became interested in minerals and collected in New Jersey. By age seventeen, Darton had spoken before the New York Academy of Sciences and published his first paper. The conclusion he derived from fieldwork was that some of the rock strata in eastern New Jersey were ancient lava flows, a new concept at that time, but one that was immediately accepted....
Article
De Brahm, William Gerard (20 August 1718–03 July 1799?), surveyor-cartographer and military engineer
Louis De Vorsey , Jr.
De Brahm, William Gerard (20 August 1718–03 July 1799?), surveyor-cartographer and military engineer, was born in Koblenz, Germany, the son of Johann Phillip von Brahm, court musician to the elector of Triers, and Johannetta Simonet. A member of the lesser nobility, De Brahm secured a broad education that included exposure to the burgeoning experimental sciences of his day. After attaining the rank of captain engineer in Charles VII’s imperial army, De Brahm married and renounced the Roman Catholic faith. Forced to resign his army commission because of his renunciation, he and his bride, Wilhelmina de Ger, found themselves nearly destitute....
Article
De Witt, Simeon (1756-1834), cartographer, surveyor, and land developer
Silvio A. Bedini
De Witt, Simeon (25 December 1756–03 December 1834), cartographer, surveyor, and land developer, was born in Wawarsing, Ulster County, New York, the son of Andries De Witt, a physician, and Jannetje Vernooy. His early education was typical of what a scattered agricultural community could provide in that period. Later he received classical instruction from the local minister, and then, on the eve of the American Revolution, he enrolled at Queen’s College (later Rutgers University) in New Brunswick, New Jersey. He was granted a B.A. degree in 1776 and an M.A. degree in 1788....
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Emory, William Hemsley (1811-1887), soldier, surveyor, and cartographer
Norman J. W. Thrower
Emory, William Hemsley (07 September 1811–01 December 1887), soldier, surveyor, and cartographer, was born on the family plantation, “Poplar Grove,” in Queen Annes County, Maryland, the son of Thomas Emory and Anna Maria Hemsley. In July 1826 William Emory enrolled in the United States Military Academy, where his classmates, to whom he was known as Bold Emory, included ...
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Evans, Lewis (1700-1756), cartographer and geologist
Elizabeth Noble Shor
Evans, Lewis (1700–11 June 1756), cartographer and geologist, was born in Llangwnadl, Carnarvonshire, Wales. His background and details of his personal life are not known. The earliest American record of him dates from 1736, when he was a surveyor and mapmaker in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He often bought books from ...
Article
Greenleaf, Moses (1777-1834), mapmaker, writer, and promoter of the state of Maine
Olive Hoogenboom
Greenleaf, Moses (17 October 1777–20 March 1834), mapmaker, writer, and promoter of the state of Maine, was born in Newburyport, Massachusetts, the son of Moses Greenleaf, a ship carpenter and a lieutenant in the American Revolution, and Lydia Parsons. In 1790 Greenleaf moved with his family to New Gloucester in the district of Maine, where his parents became farmers. From 1799 to 1806 he operated a general store, first in New Gloucester for three years, then in Poland, Kenduskeag, and Bangor. In 1805 he married Persis Poor; they had four children. One year after his marriage Greenleaf purchased from William Dodd of Boston a quarter interest in a township to be carved from Maine “wild lands” he had purchased from Massachusetts. Greenleaf agreed to manage the joint property (later incorporated as Williamsburg) and to settle forty families there by 1812. Greenleaf spent part of the winter of 1807 in Boston, where he promoted his new property and the separation of Maine from Massachusetts while the General Court was in session there. Although an ardent Federalist, he opposed the majority of his party on the issue of separation....
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Harriot, Thomas (1560-1621), scientist, linguist, and author of the first English book on North America
David B. Quinn
Harriot, Thomas (1560–02 July 1621), scientist, linguist, and author of the first English book on North America, was born in Oxford (city or county), England; his parentage is unknown. As an undergraduate he entered St. Mary’s Hall (attached to Oriel College, Oxford) in 1576, matriculated in the University of Oxford in 1557, and graduated B.A. in 1580. He never married....
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Herrman, Augustine (1605?–1686?), merchant, attorney, ambassador, and mapmaker
Dorothy Rowlett Colburn
Herrman, Augustine (1605?–1686?), merchant, attorney, ambassador, and mapmaker, was born in Prague, Bohemia, thought to be the son of Ephraim Augustin Herrman, a shopkeeper and city councilman, and Beatrix Redel, but possibly the son of Abraham Herrman, a Hussite minister in Mseno who was exiled to Zittau in Saxony because he was not Roman Catholic, and eventually settled in Amsterdam (wife’s name unknown)....
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Hutchins, Thomas (1730?–28 April 1789), cartographer and surveyor
James X. Corgan
Hutchins, Thomas (1730?–28 April 1789), cartographer and surveyor, was born on the New Jersey frontier. Orphaned before the age of sixteen, by the end of the French and Indian War, in 1756, he was an ensign with Pennsylvania troops. In 1760, after several years of frontier service, he took leave to become an Indian agent. His most publicized assignment was a diplomatic mission to tribes of the Northwest. Hutchins prepared well-written narratives of his travels and generally included maps with surveyed areas. In some instances he was the first person to attempt a map of a large region. His maps and reports led to an offer of a regular British army commission, without purchase fees. Hutchins accepted and gradually became North America’s premier frontier surveyor and mapper. In 1764, 1766, and 1768 he accompanied parties exploring the vast region of the eastern Mississippi River Valley from Minnesota to New Orleans. Other assignments also contributed to his geographic expertise. In 1763, for example, he traveled through the southern colonies as an army recruiter....
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Keith, Arthur (1864-1944), structural geologist and geologic mapper
Ellis L. Yochelson
Keith, Arthur (30 September 1864–07 February 1944), structural geologist and geologic mapper, was born in St. Louis, Missouri, the son of Harrison Alonzo Keith, a high school principal and city administrator, and Mary Elizabeth Richardson. Keith grew up in Quincy, Massachusetts, attended Harvard University, and, after graduating in 1885, investigated the local geology around his hometown. In connection with graduate work at Harvard, for which he received an A.M., he mapped for the Massachusetts Topographic Survey in 1886. In June 1887 Keith joined the U.S. Geological Survey as a field assistant to ...
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Kern, Benjamin Jordan
See Kern, Edward Meyer
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Kern, Edward Meyer (26 October 1823–23 November 1863), artists and explorers
Robert V. Hine
Kern, Edward Meyer (26 October 1823–23 November 1863), Richard Hovendon Kern (11 April 1821–26 October 1853), and Benjamin Jordan Kern (03 August 1818–14 March 1849), artists and explorers, were born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, the sons of John Kern III, a customs house collector for the Port of Philadelphia, and Mary Elizabeth Bignell. The Kerns’ eight children were well educated and trained in the arts and sciences. Three of the boys (John IV, Edward, and Richard) were artists, and Benjamin earned an M.D. from the Pennsylvania Medical College....
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Kern, Richard Hovendon
See Kern, Edward Meyer
Article
Kino, Eusebio Francisco (1645-1711), Jesuit missionary, explorer, and cartographer
Michael Mathes
Kino, Eusebio Francisco (10 August 1645–15 March 1711), Jesuit missionary, explorer, and cartographer, was born in Segno (Tirol), near Trent in northern Italy, the son of Francisco Chini and Margarita (maiden name unknown). Later in his life, as a missionary in the New World, he was to alter the spelling of the surname, Chini or Chino, so that it would be pronounced as it is in Italian....
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Le Moyne de Morgues, Jacques (1533-1588), artist and cartographer
Bertrand Van Ruymbeke
Le Moyne de Morgues, Jacques (1533– May 1588), artist and cartographer, was born in Dieppe, France. Nothing is known of Le Moyne’s early life. In 1564 he was recruited by Gaspard de Coligny, admiral of France and sponsor of the French Florida colonization expeditions (1562–1565), to chart the coast and rivers of northeastern Florida. It is possible that Le Moyne was Charles IX’s cartographer and was chosen by Coligny for this reason. Because ...
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Lesley, J. Peter (1819-1903), geologist and topographer
Patsy Gerstner
Lesley, J. Peter (07 September 1819–01 June 1903), geologist and topographer, was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, the son of Peter Lesley, a cabinetmaker, and Elizabeth Oswald Allen. He was christened Peter Lesley but adopted the initial J. to avoid confusion with his father. Lesley graduated from the University of Pennsylvania in 1838, planning to enter the Princeton Theological Seminary to prepare for a career as a Presbyterian minister. Poor health delayed his plans, and in an effort to rebuild his health through vigorous outdoor life he joined the first state geological survey of Pennsylvania under ...
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Romans, Bernard (fl. 1720–1780), cartographer and naturalist
Steve Fisher
Romans, Bernard (fl. 1720–1780), cartographer and naturalist, was born in Holland. Nothing is known about his parents or early childhood. He traveled to England in his youth and studied botany, mathematics, and engineering. Romans came to the United States around 1757, serving as a junior surveyor for the British government....
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Snyder, John P. (1926-1997), cartographer
Arthur H. Robinson
Snyder, John P. (12 April 1926–28 April 1997), cartographer, was born John Parr Snyder in Indianapolis, Indiana, the son of Ralph Snyder, an accountant, and Freda Snyder. He attended elementary and high school in Indianapolis, where he was an excellent student and was president of the honor society in his senior year. As a youth he developed a strong curiosity about maps, a hobby that was to become his vocation....
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Tanner, Henry Schenck (1786-1858), cartographer and statistical geographer
Michael P. Conzen
Tanner, Henry Schenck (1786–1858), cartographer and statistical geographer, was born in New York City, the son of John Tanner, a ship master, and Ann Schenck. His father died when he was six, and the family was then headed by his older brother Benjamin Tanner...
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