Henry Gannett
Born	(1846-08-24)August 24, 1846 Bath, Maine, U.S.
Died	November 5, 1914(1914-11-05) (aged 68) Washington, D.C., U.S.
Alma mater	Harvard University Harvard University School of Mining and Practical Geology
Occupation	Geographer
Employer(s)	United States Geological Survey United States Census
Organization(s)	American Association of Geographers Cosmos Club National Geographic Society
Known for	Father of mapmaking in America

Henry Gannett (August 24, 1846 – November 5, 1914) was an Americangeographer who is described as the "father of mapmaking in America."^[1][2][3][4] He was the chief geographer for theUnited States Geological Survey essentially from its founding until 1902.^[2]

He was a founding member and president of theNational Geographic Society, a founder of theAmerican Association of Geographers, and a co-founder and president of the Twenty Year Club or Twenty Year Topographers which was formed at the U.S.G.S. Topographic Division. He was also a founder and president of theCosmos Club inWashington, D.C.

Gannett also was the geographer of the 10thUnited States Census in 1880, 11th Census in 1890, and the 12th Census in 1900. He was the assistant director of the 1899 Census of the Philippines and Puerto Rico, the 1902 Census of the Philippines, and the 1906 Census in Cuba.

Gannett was born inBath, Maine, on August 24, 1846.^[3] He was the son of Hannah Trufant (née Church) and Michael Farley Gannett.^[3][5] He attended local schools, before going to Harvard for college.^[3] He graduated with a B.S. from theLawrence Scientific School ofHarvard University in 1869 and received an M.E. at the Hooper Mining School (aka theHarvard University School of Mining and Practical Geology) in 1870.^[5][3] Later, he trained in topographic mapping atCambridge underJosiah D. Whitney andCharles F. Hoffman.^[4]

From 1870 to 1871, Gannett was an assistant at theHarvard College Observatory.^[5] In 1871, he participated in a Harvard expedition to Spain to observe asolar eclipse.^[3][4]

In 1871 he declined a position as an astronomer withCharles Francis Hall's ill-fatedPolaris Expedition to the North Pole.^[4][5][3] Instead, with the encouragement of Charles Hoffman, he accepted the position oftopographer with Dr.Ferdinand Vandeveer Hayden's survey ofYellowstone National Park, working on western territories surveys from 1872 through 1879.^[5][2][3][4] On July 26, 1872, while climbing the then-unnamed highest mountain in theGallatin Mountains, he and his party experienced electric shocks following alightning event near the summit. He named the mountainElectric Peak.

In 1879, Gannet was among those lobbying to centralize the mapping functions into one government agency. Previously individual mapmakers and agencies had to compete for money from Congress for project funds. He suggested calling the new organization "United States Geological and Geographical Survey" although the nameUnited States Geological Survey (USGS) would officially be approved. He also assisted in planning the work of the USGS.^[2]

Gannet was appointed to the USGS on October 8, 1879, under directorClarence King.^[4][6] He was immediately transferred served as the geographer of the 10thUnited States Census in 1880.^[5][4] He laid out 2,000 enumeration districts with such precision that for the first time, each census enumerator knew in advance the metes and bounds of his particular district. The completion of this work on July 1, 1882, is considered the start of true topographical work in the United States and the birth of the quad.

On July 1, 1882,John Wesley Powell appointed Gannett as the chief geographer in charge of the topographic mapping division of the USGS, a position he held until 1896.^[5][4] Around 1884, he persuaded various organizations doing the surveys, including the railroads, to begin using similardatums so the data could interconnect. As the chief geographer, he oversaw work on the topographical atlas of the United States.^[5] He also served as a geographer for the 11th Census in 1890 and the 12th Census in 1900.^[2][3]

In 1890, he andThomas Corwin Mendenhall of theUnited States Coast and Geodetic Survey campaigned to establish theUnited States Board on Geographic Names to create official names for locations in the United States.^[2] He was named to the newly createdBoard on Geographic Names byPresident Benjamin Harrison inExecutive Order No. 28. In 1896, his last year with the USGS, he started the use of thebenchmark.

In 1899, he was invited on theHarriman Alaska Expedition. In 1899, he was appointed the assistant director of the Census of the Philippines and Puerto Rico, the Philippines again in 1902, and Cuba in 1906.^[2][4][7] In 1909 he was named chairman of a special committee to examine and verify the records ofRobert E. Peary in the controversy withFrederick Cook over who was the first to reach the North Pole.

Gannett's published works are geographical and statistical.^[5] He wrote more than fifty USGS Bulletins and Annual Reports.^[8] He issued agazetteer for eleven states and was a contributor toBaedecker's Guide to the United States,Encyclopedia Britannica,andThe New International Encyclopedia.^[9][3] He also was the author books for general readers and. statistical atlases. He wrote articles forThe National Geographic Magazine,Science,Nature,Bulletin of the American Geographical Society, and other journals. Although he did not write many works ingeomorphology andphysical geology, he offered valuable suggestions.^[3] For example, he recognizedhanging valleys and their importance in interpreting a geological setting.^[3] Later his in career, he ofter wrote about American forests, and the importance of conservation.

In 1888 Gannett was one of six founding members of theNational Geographic Society.^[10][2][4] He served as its first secretary, and later as treasurer, then vice–president, and president, in 1909.^[7][2] He was also Chair of the Society's Research Committee, organizing expeditions to Alaska,La Soufriere,Mount Pelee, Peru, and thePolar Seas.^[3]

From 1897 to 1909, he was a vice president of theAmerican Statistical Association.^[11][7] In 1904 he was among the founders of theAmerican Association of Geographers.^[3] Also in 1904, he was secretary of the 8th Geographic Congress.^[3] He was also a member of theWashington Academy of Sciences, theRoyal Geographical Society of London, theRoyal Scottish Geographical Society, and the Philadelphia Geographic Society.^{[12][2][13][9][14][3][10][4]}

Gannett was a co-founder and president of the Twenty Year Club or Twenty Year Topographers which was formed at the United States Geological Survey Topographic Division in the winter of 1910–1911.^[4] Eligibility was serving twenty years or more as a topographer with the U.S.G.S.^[4]

Gannett received an honorary LL.D fromBowdoin College in 1889.^[5][14]

Gannett Peak, the highest peak inWyoming, and the relatedGannett Glacier was named for him in 1906.^[15] In 1911, Lawrence Martin namedMount Gannett, a 10,000 feet (3,000 m) peak in theChugach Mountains of easternAlaska, for Henry Gannett.^[16]

The USGS National Geospatial Program presents the Henry Gannett Award for outstanding efforts in advancing and promoting mapping and geospatial sciences in the United States.^[8]

Gannett married Mary E. Chase ofWaterville, Maine on November 24, 1874.^[3] They had a son, Farley Gannett who was an engineer for the Water Supply Commission of Pennsylvania.^[2][9] Their daughters were May Gannett (Mrs. G. T. Backus) andAlice Gannett; the latter was a notedsocial reformer andsettlement house worker.^[9][14]

Gannett was one of the ten founding members and president of theCosmos Club.^[4]

Gannett died at his home in 1840 Biltmore Street,Washington, D.C. on November 5, 1914, after being ill for about a year withBright's Disease.^{[1][2][9][14]} His funeral service was given by Rev. U. G. B. Pierce of All Soul'sUnitarian Church.^[14] The day of his funeral, theNational Geographic Society closed its offices and draped the building in mourning.^[2]

• The West: From the Census of 1880, a History of the Industrial, Commercial, Social, and Political Development of the States and Territories of the West from 1800 to 1880. withRobert P. Porter andWilliam A. Jones. Chicago: Rand, McNally & Company, 1882.
• Louisiana. Boston: Little, Brown & Co., 1882.
• Scribner's Statistical Atlas with F. W. Hewes. New York: C. Scribner's Sons, 1883.
• The Building of a Nation, the growth, Present Condition and Resources of the United States, with a Forecast of the Future. New York: The H. T. Thomas Company, 1893.
• Topographical Atlas of the State of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations. withMarcus Baker and George H. Walker. Providence, R.I.: J.C. Thompson, 1891
• The Building of a Nation; the Growth, Present Condition and Resources of the United States with a Forecast of the Future;. New York: The Henry T. Thomas Company, 1895.
• Stanford's Compendium of Geography and Travel: The United States vol. 2. London: Edward Stanford, 1898.
• Commercial Geography. with Carl L. Garrison andEdwin J. Houston. New York: American Book Company, 1905.
• Statistical Abstract of the World. New York: John Wiley & Sons, 1907.
• Cuba: Population, History and Resources 1907. with Victor H. Olmsted. Washington, D.C.: United States Bureau of the Census, 1909.

• The Areas of the United States, the Several States and Territories, and their Counties.Extra Census Bulletin, 1881.
• Dictionary of Altitudes in the United States.United States Geological Survey Bulletin no. 5, 1884.
• Dictionary of Altitudes in the United States. 2nd edition.United States Geological Survey Bulletin no. 70, 1884.
• Boundaries of the United States and of the Several States and Territories, with a Historical Sketch of the Territorial Changes.United States Geological Survey Bulletin no. 13, 1885.
• A Manual of Topographic Methods.United States Geological Survey Monograph no. 22, 1893.
• Statistics of the Negroes in the United States.The Trustees of theJohn F. Slater Fund Occasional Papers no. 4, 1894.
• Occupations of the Negroes.The Trustees of theJohn F. Slater Fund Occasional Papers no. 6, 1894.
• A Dictionary of Altitudes in the United States,3rd edition,United States Geological Survey Bulletin 160, 1899.
• Origin of Certain Place Names in the United States.United States Geological Survey Bulletin 248, 1902.
• A Gazetteer of Porto Rico.United States Geological Survey Bulletin no. 183, 1901.
• A Gazetteer of Cuba.United States Geological Survey Bulletin no. 192, 1902.
• A Gazetteer of Texas.United States Geological Survey Bulletin no. 224, 1902.
• "The Forests of Oregon"United States Geological Survey Professional Paper no. 4, 1902.
• "The Forests of Washington"United States Geological Survey Professional Paper no. 5, 1902.
• A Gazetter of Delaware.United States Geological Survey Bulletin no. 230, Series F, Geography 38, 1904.
• A Gazetter of Maryland.United States Geological Survey Bulletin no. 231, 1904.
• A Gazetter of Virginia.United States Geological Survey Bulletin no. 232, Series F, Geography 40, 1904.
• A Gazetteer of Indian Territory.United States Geological Survey Bulletin248, Series F, Geography 44, 1905.
• A Dictionary of Altitudes in the United States 4th edition.United States Geological Survey Bulletin no. 274, 1906.
• A Gazetteer of Colorado.United States Geological Survey Bulletin no. 291, Series F, Geography 51, 1906.
• The Areas of the United States, the States, and the Territories.United States Geological Survey Bulletin no. 302, Series F, Geography 58, 1906.

• "Report on the Geographical Field Work in the Yellowstone National Park",Twelfth Annual Report of the Survey for the Year 1878. United States Geological Survey, June 13, 1883.
• "The Geodetic Work of the Hayden and Wheeler Surveys",Science, vol. 3, no. 2, April 11, 1884.
• "Is the Rainfall Increasing upon the Plains?",Science vol. 11, no. 265, March 2, 1888.
• "The Mother Maps of the United States",The National Geographic Magazinevol. 4, 1892–1893.
• "The Average Elevation of the United States".Thirteenth Annual Report of the Director 1891–92, United States Geological Survey, 1894.
• "The Movements of Our Population",The National Geographic Magazinevol. 5, 1895.
• "The Mapping of New York State",Journal of the American Geographical Society of New York vol. 27, 1895.
• "Summary of the Primary Triangulation Executed by the United States Geological Survey between the Years 1882 and 1894",Sixteenth Annual Report of the Survey 1894–95 Part 1: Director's Report and Papers of a Theoretical Nature. United States Geological Survey, 1896.
• "A Graphic History of the United States",Journal of the American Geographical Society of New York, vol. 28, 1896.
• "The Topographic Work of the U. S. Geological Survey in 1895",Journal of the American Geographical Society of New York, vol. 28, no. 4, January 1896.
• "Survey and Subdivision of Indian Territory",The National Geographic Magazinevol. 7, no. 3, March 1896.
• "The Work of the United States Board on Geographic Names",The National Geographic Magazinevol. 7, no. 7, July 1896.
• "Statistics of Railways in the United States",The National Geographic Magazine vol. 7, no.12, December 1896.
• "The Administration of the Forests of the Public Domain",Journal of the American Geographical Society of New York, vol. 29, 1897.
• "Our Foreign Trade",The National Geographic Magazine vol. 9, no. 5, January 1898.
• "Captain Charles D. Sigsbee, U. S. N.",The National Geographic Magazine vol. 9, no. 5, May 1898.
• "Geographic Work of the General Government",The National Geographic Magazine vol. 9, no. 7. July 1898.
• "The Forest Conditions and Standing Timber of the State of Washington",The National Geographic Magazine vol. 9, no. 9. September 1898.
• "The Timber Line",Journal of the American Geographical Society of New York, vol. 31, January 1899.
• "The Redwood Forest of the Pacific Coast",The National Geographic Magazine vol. 10, no. 5. May 1899.
• "The Harriman Alaska Expedition",The National Geographic Magazine vol. 10, no. 12, December 1899.
• "The Forests of the United States",Twentieth Annual Report of the Survey 1898–99, Part 5, Forest Reserves. United States Geological Survey, 1900.
• "Early Western Explorers and the Railroads",Bulletin of the American Geographical Society vol. 37, January 1905.
• "A Revelation of the Filipinos" with Joseph Prentiss Sanger and Victor H. Olmsted.The National Geographic Magazine vol. 16, no. 4, April 1905.
• "Certain Relations of Rainfall and Temperature to Tree Growth",Bulletin of the American Geographical Society vol. 38, January 1906.
• "Farm Tenure in the United States",Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, vol. 33, May 1, 1909.
• "Commander Peary's Expedition to the North Pole" with C. M. Chester and O. H. Tittman.Nature vol. 83, no. 2114, May 1910.

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