Powell was not only a geographer but a map collector.   According to a typescript note with the map, Powell had a map entitled “Plan of My Farm On Little Hunting Creek…by GW…1766” in his possession.    Although the provenance is not 100% clear we believe the map was in Washington’s library at the time of his death and was then inherited by Bushrod Washington. 

In September 1902 John Wesley Powell died.  In  February 1903, only a few months later,  Mrs. Powell donated the map to the Library of Congress Geography and Map Division.  The typescript note indicates that “it was Major Powell’s wish to donate the map to the Library of Congress”.

Ed

 

Ed Redmond

Reference Specialist
Curator, Vault Collections

Geography & Map Division
Library of Congress
101 Independence Ave. SE, LM-B01
Washington, DC 20540-4650
Voice: 202-707-8548

 

From: Maps-L: Map Librarians, etc. <[log in to unmask]> On Behalf Of Angela R Cope
Sent: Monday, April 01, 2019 11:05 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: 150th anniversary of the Powell Expedition

 

https://www.usgs.gov/science-support/osqi/yes/resources-teachers/150th-anniversary-powell-expedition?qt-science_support_page_related_con=2#qt-science_support_page_related_con

 

The U.S. Geological Survey and partnering organizations are celebrating the 150th anniversary of the Powell Expedition, an exploration of the Green and Colorado Rivers that ended in the Grand Canyon. Led by scientist and Civil War amputee John Wesley Powell, a team of 10 men in four small wooden boats departed Green River Wyoming on May 24, 1869. Only six men and two boats completed the 95-day journey, but the expedition succeeded in recording some of the earliest known maps, data, topographic measurements, geology, and local Native American culture, for much of the treacherous Colorado River that runs through modern-day Grand Canyon National Park.

Powell later became the second director of the U.S. Geological Survey as well as the U.S. Commissioner of Indian Affairs, the first director of the Bureau of Ethnology at the Smithsonian Institution, and a co-founder of the National Geographic Society.

The USGS continues to do important science along the river and to contribute information to decision-makers who are working to manage the river basin as a resource for water, recreation, and power in Western states. The focus of the education and outreach efforts surrounding the Powell150 Expedition is to inform and engage the public around the geology and ecology of rivers in general and this river system in particular and to raise public awareness of the natural resources of the Colorado River Basin.

 

 

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Angie Cope 

AGS Library, UW Milwaukee Libraries

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http://uwm.edu/libraries/agsl/

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