Christoph Daniel Ebeling (20 November 1741 – 30 June 1817) was a scholar of Germany who studied the geography and history of North America.

Biography

Ebeling was born near

Hildesheim Hildesheim (; nds, Hilmessen, Hilmssen; la, Hildesia) is a city in Lower Saxony, Germany with 101,693 inhabitants. It is in the district of Hildesheim, about southeast of Hanover on the banks of the Innerste River, a small tributary of the ...

Hanover Hanover (; german: Hannover ; nds, Hannober) is the capital and largest city of the German state of Lower Saxony. Its 535,932 (2021) inhabitants make it the 13th-largest city in Germany as well as the fourth-largest city in Northern Germany ...

. He studied theology at

Göttingen Göttingen (, , ; nds, Chöttingen) is a college town, university city in Lower Saxony, central Germany, the Capital (political), capital of Göttingen (district), the eponymous district. The River Leine runs through it. At the end of 2019, t ...

, but devoted himself to geographical studies, and for 33 years taught history and Greek in the Hamburg gymnasium. He was also superintendent of the Hamburg library, and collected about 10,000 maps and nearly 4,000 books relating to America. Ebeling's

magnum opus A masterpiece, ''magnum opus'' (), or ''chef-d’œuvre'' (; ; ) in modern use is a creation that has been given much critical praise, especially one that is considered the greatest work of a person's career or a work of outstanding creativity, ...

was a ''Geography and History of North America'' (5 vols., Hamburg, 1796–1816), forming a continuation of Büsching's ''General Geography''. He received a vote of thanks from the

United States Congress The United States Congress is the legislature of the federal government of the United States. It is bicameral, composed of a lower body, the House of Representatives, and an upper body, the Senate. It meets in the U.S. Capitol in Washi ...

for this work. He was noted for his extensive knowledge of oriental languages, of classic and foreign literature, and of history and geography. Ebeling's collection was purchased by

Israel Thorndike Israel Thorndike (April 30, 1755 – May 9, 1832) was an American merchant, politician, industrialist, and slave trader. He made a fortune in privateering and the Old China Trade, was active in Federalist Party politics during the Thomas Jefferson ...

in the year after Ebeling's death, and given by him to Harvard. As a result, Harvard's library collections grew massively, virtually overnight. Through Thorndike, Ebeling's maps became the founding gift that created the Harvard Map Collection. Ebeling was elected a member of the

American Antiquarian Society The American Antiquarian Society (AAS), located in Worcester, Massachusetts, is both a learned society and a national research library of pre-twentieth-century American history and culture. Founded in 1812, it is the oldest historical society in ...

in 1814.American Antiquarian Society Members Directory
/ref> He died in

Hamburg Hamburg (, ; nds, label=Hamburg German, Low Saxon, Hamborg ), officially the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg (german: Freie und Hansestadt Hamburg; nds, label=Low Saxon, Friee un Hansestadt Hamborg),. is the List of cities in Germany by popul ...

Notes

References

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Ebeling, Christoph Daniel 1741 births 1817 deaths German geographers University of Göttingen alumni 19th-century German historians Historians of North America German librarians German male non-fiction writers Members of the American Antiquarian Society 18th-century German historians