Aaron Arrowsmith (1750–1823) was an English cartographer, engraver and publisher and founding member of the Arrowsmith family of geographers.

Life

He moved to

Soho Square Soho Square is a garden square in Soho, London, hosting since 1954 a ''de facto'' public park let by the Soho Square Garden Committee to Westminster City Council. It was originally called King Square after Charles II, and a much weathered ...

, London from

Winston, County Durham Winston is a village and civil parish in County Durham, England. It is situated approximately east of Barnard Castle, on a crossroads between the A67 and B6274 roads. According to the 2011 UK Census the population was 431, the parish includes ...

, when about twenty years of age, and was employed by

John Cary John Cary (c. 1754 – 1835) was an English cartographer. Life Cary served his apprenticeship as an engraver in London, before setting up his own business in the Strand in 1783. He soon gained a reputation for his maps and globes, his atlas ...

, the engraver and

William Faden William Faden (1749 – 1836) was an English cartographer and a publisher of maps. He was the royal geographer to King George III. He replaced Thomas Jefferys in that role. The title of "geographer to the king" was given to various people in t ...

. He became Hydrographer to the Prince of Wales and subsequently to the King in 1820. In January 1790 he made himself famous by his large chart of the world on Mercator projection. Four years later he published another large map of the world on the globular projection, with a companion volume of explanation. Improperly called "Arrowsmith's projection," the globular projection used by Arrowsmith was invented by

Giovan Battista Nicolosi Giovan Battista Nicolosi, D.D., was a Sicilian priest and geographer. Nicolosi proposed a new projection for the construction of the world map in two hemispheres, known today as the Nicolosi globular projection, in which the parallels and meridi ...

, of Paternò, Sicily, in 1660, while Arrowsmith did not use it until 1794. The maps of North America (1796) and Scotland (1807) are the most celebrated of his many later productions. In 1804, 63 maps drawn by Arrowsmith and Samuel Lewis of Philadelphia (publisher of

William Clark William Clark (August 1, 1770 – September 1, 1838) was an American explorer, soldier, Indian agent, and territorial governor. A native of Virginia, he grew up in pre-statehood Kentucky before later settling in what became the state of Miss ...

's manuscript map of the Northwest) were published in the ''New and elegant General Atlas Comprising all Discoveries to the Present Time.'' Later editions of the atlas were published in 1805, 1812, and 1819. The 1804 and 1812 editions are digitized in the David Rumsey map collection. Arrowsmith's 1808 map of the

western Western may refer to: Places *Western, Nebraska, a village in the US *Western, New York, a town in the US *Western Creek, Tasmania, a locality in Australia *Western Junction, Tasmania, a locality in Australia *Western world, countries that id ...

and eastern hemisphere was updated, corrected and enlarged by James Gardner in 1825."James Gardner 1808-1840"
David L Walker, ''Sheetlines'', 101 (December 2014), pp31-38 He left two sons, Aaron and Samuel, the elder of whom was the compiler of the ''Eton Comparative Atlas'', of a ''Biblical atlas'', and of various manuals of geography. Aaron Arrowsmith the elder was responsible for organising the volume of maps for ''

Rees's Cyclopædia Rees's ''Cyclopædia'', in full ''The Cyclopædia; or, Universal Dictionary of Arts, Sciences, and Literature'' was an important 19th-century British encyclopaedia edited by Rev. Abraham Rees (1743–1825), a Presbyterian minister and scholar w ...

'', 1802–19. The business was thus carried on in company with John Arrowsmith (1790–1873), nephew of the elder Aaron. In 1821, they published a more complete North American map from a combination of a maps obtained from the

Hudson's Bay Company The Hudson's Bay Company (HBC; french: Compagnie de la Baie d'Hudson) is a Canadian retail business group. A fur trading business for much of its existence, HBC now owns and operates retail stores in Canada. The company's namesake business di ...

and Aaron's previous one.

Mount Arrowsmith Mount Arrowsmith is the highest mountain east of Port Alberni on Vancouver Island. Its dominant rock is basalt. The mountain is contained within the Mount Arrowsmith Biosphere Region and as of September 18, 2009 is designated part of hectare ...

, situated east of Port Alberni on

Vancouver Island Vancouver Island is an island in the northeastern Pacific Ocean and part of the Canadian province of British Columbia. The island is in length, in width at its widest point, and in total area, while are of land. The island is the largest by ...

, British Columbia, is named for Aaron Arrowsmith and his nephew John Arrowsmith.

Maps published

*''Chart of the world on Mercator's projection, exhibiting all the new discoveries to the present time: with the tracks of the most distinguished navigators since the year 1700, carefully collected from the best charts, maps, voyages, &c extant.'', 1790 (8 sheets) *''A Map Exhibiting All the New Discoveries in the Interior Parts of North America'', 1 January 1795, with numerous other editions, including i
17961802
1811
1814
1818
1819
an
1824
The 1802 version of this map was studied closely by Meriwether Lewis prior to the

Lewis and Clark Expedition The Lewis and Clark Expedition, also known as the Corps of Discovery Expedition, was the United States expedition to cross the newly acquired western portion of the country after the Louisiana Purchase. The Corps of Discovery was a select gr ...

and the 1811 edition was updated with the published information from that expedition in the 1814 edition. *''Chart of the Pacific Ocean Drawn from a great number of Printed and Ms. Journals...'', 1798
1820 edition
(9 sheets)
''Africa To The Committee and Members of the British Association'', 1802 (4 sheets)1811 edition''Chart of the West Indies And Spanish Dominions in North America'', 1803 (4 sheets)
*''Map of America'', 1804
1808 edition
1811 edition *''Chart of the East Indies Islands, Exhibiting the several Passages between the Indian and Pacific Oceans'', 1800
1809 edition1812 edition1824 edition''A New Map of Mexico and Adjacent Provinces Compiled from Original Documents.'', 1810 (4 sheets)
*''Map of Countries Round the North Pole'', 1818

References

;Attribution *

External links

Integrated Land Management Bureau, Government of British Columbia.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Arrowsmith, Aaron English geographers English cartographers 1750 births 1823 deaths