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Astronomers • Cartographers born active died
1754, Jan 24 1772-1817 1820, Aug 28
a U.S. surveyor who helped map many of the territories west of the Appalachians, surveyed the boundaries of the District of Columbia, continued and completed Pierre (Peter) Charles L'Enfant's work on the plan for Washington, D.C., and served as a teacher in survey methods for Meriwether Lewis. In 1770, his father, together with his uncles Andrew and John, purchased land on the falls of the Patapsco River, upriver and west of Baltimore and the Chesapeake Bay. There they set up a new milling business, founding the town of Ellicott's Mills in 1772 (today's Ellicott City, Maryland).
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Astronomers
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Sort Name Nationality Born Active Died Selected 41
Andrew Ellicott [2] 1754, Jan 24 1772
1817 1820, Aug 28
James Ferguson [3] 1710, Apr 25 1720 1773 1776, Nov 17 a Scottish astronomer, instrument and globe maker. It is, as the inventor and improver of astron... Stephen Hopkins 1707, Mar 7 1730 1779 1785, Jul 13 a governor of the Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, a Chief Justice of the Rhode... Thomas Wright [2] 1711, Sep 22 1730 1779 1786, Feb 25 an English astronomer, mathematician, instrument maker, architect and garden designer. He was the... Cesar-Francois Cassini de Thury 1714, Jun 17 1735 1784 1784, Sep 4 a French astronomer and cartographer. His chief works are: La méridienne de l’Observatoire ... Charles Messier 1730, Jun 26 1744 1785 1817, Apr 12 a French astronomer most notable for publishing an astronomical catalogue consisting of nebulae a... Rudjer Boscovich 1711, May 18 1740 1786 1787, Feb 13 a Ragusan physicist, astronomer, mathematician, philosopher, diplomat, poet, theologian, Jesuit p... John Goodricke 1764, Sep 17 1778 1786 1786, Apr 20 an English amateur astronomer. He is best known for his observations of the variable star Algol (... Jean Sylvain Bailly 1736, Sep 15 1759 1787 1793, Nov 12 a French astronomer, mathematician, freemason, and political leader of the early part of the Fren... Maximilian Hell 1720, May 15 1756 1789 1792, Apr 14 a Hungarian astronomer and an ordained Jesuit priest from the Kingdom of Hungary. Hell became th... Benjamin Banneker 1731, Nov 9 1753 1797 1806, Oct 9 a free African American almanac author, surveyor, naturalist and farmer. His knowledge of astrono... Asada Goryu 1734, Mar 10 1767 1799 1799, Jun 25 a Japanese astronomer who helped to introduce modern astronomical instruments and methods into Ja... Jean-Dominique Cassini 1748 Jun 30 1768 1810 1845, Oct 18 a French astronomer, he succeeded his father as director of the observatory. He published in 177... Eise Eisinga 1744, Feb 21 1761 1811 1828, Aug 27 a Frisian amateur astronomer who built the Eise Eisinga Planetarium in his house in Franeker, Fri... Iwahashi Zenbei 1756 1790 1811 1811 a Japanese scientist and optician. Zenbei researched some imported optical instruments, then in 1... Honore Flaugergues 1755, May 16 1809 1813 1830, Nov 20/1835, Nov 26 a French astronomer. He discovered the "Great Comet of 1811" (C/1811 F1), and independently co-di... William Herschel 1738, Nov 15 1774 1820 1822, Aug 25 a German-born British astronomer, composer, and brother of Caroline Herschel. His interest in ast... Jean Baptiste Joseph Delambre 1749, Sep 19 1788 1822 1822, Aug 19 a French mathematician and astronomer. He was also director of the Paris Observatory, and author ... Johann Elert Bode 1747, Jan 19 1766 1825 1826, Nov 23 a German astronomer known for his reformulation and popularization of the Titius–Bode law. Bode... Joseph von Fraunhofer 1787, Mar 6 1801 1826 1826, Jun 7 a German optician, known for discovering the dark absorption lines known as Fraunhofer lines in t... Pierre-Simon Laplace 1749, Mar 23 1771 1827 1827, Mar 5 an influential French scholar whose work was important to the development of mathematics, statist... Heinrich Wilhelm Matthaus Olbers 1758, Oct 11 1779 1827 1840, Mar 2 a German physician and astronomer. Olbers discovered and named the asteroid Pallas. Five years l... Franz Xaver von Zach 1754, Jun 4 1780 1827 1832, Sep 2 a Hungarian astronomer born in Pest, Hungary. Zach published Tables of the Sun (Gotha, 179... Fearon Fallows 1788, Jul 4 1816 1830 1831, Jul 25 an English astronomer to King George IV. Between 1821 and 1829 he worked to site, plan and develo... Karl Ludwig Harding 1765, Sep 29 1796 1834 1834, Aug 31 a German astronomer notable for having discovered the asteroid 3 Juno. In addition to Juno, he di... Friedrich Wilhelm Bessel 1784, Jul 22 1804 1842 1846, Mar 17 a German astronomer, mathematician, physicist and geodesist. He was the first astronomer who dete... Alexis Bouvard 1767, Jun 27 1793 1843 1843, Jun 7 a French astronomer. He is particularly noted for his careful observations of the irregularities ... Francis Baily 1774, Apr 28 1799 1843 1844, Aug 30 an English astronomer. He is most famous for his observations of 'Baily's beads' during an eclips... Caroline Herschel 1750 Mar 16 1772 1846 1848, Jan 9 a German British astronomer and the sister of astronomer Sir William Herschel with whom she worke... Karl Ludwig Hencke 1793, Apr 8 1807 1847 1866, Sep 21 a German amateur astronomer. He discovered two asteroids from his private observatory at #9, Kiet... James Dunlop 1793, Oct 31 1810 1847 1848, Sep 22 a Scottish astronomer, noted for his work in Australia. He served as astronomer's assistant at a ... Wilhelm Freiherr von Biela 1782, Mar 19 1802 1849 1856, Feb 18 a German-Austrian military officer and amateur astronomer. In the field of astronomy, he speciali... William Cranch Bond 1789, Sep 9 1806 1850 1859, Jan 29 an American astronomer, and the first director of Harvard College Observatory. When he built his ... Francois Arago 1786, Feb 26 1804 1852 1853, Oct 2 a French mathematician, physicist, astronomer, freemason, supporter of the carbonari and politici... Carl Friedrich Gauss 1777, Apr 30 1798 1854 1855, Feb 23 a German mathematician who contributed significantly to many fields, including number theory, alg... August Ferdinand Mobius 1790, Nov 17 1816 1858 1868, Sep 26 a German mathematician and theoretical astronomer. He is best known for his discovery of the Möb... Giuseppe Asclepi 1706 1760 186 1776 an Italian astronomer and physician. He was a Jesuit and director of the observatory at the Colle... Christopher Hansteen 1784, Sep 26 1806 1861 1873, Apr 11 a Norwegian geophysicist, astronomer and physicist, best known for his mapping of Earth's magneti... Johann Franz Encke 1791, Sep 23 1816 1863 1865, Aug 26 a German astronomer. Among his activities, he worked on the calculation of the periods of comets ... John Herschel 1792, Mar 7 1816 1867 1871, May 11 an English polymath, mathematician, astronomer, chemist, inventor, experimental photographer, and... David Rittenhouse 1732, Apr 8 1750 187 1796, Jun 26 a renowned American astronomer, inventor, clockmaker, mathematician, surveyor, scientific instrum... Mary Fairfax Somerville 1780, Dec 26 1811 1872 1872, Nov 29 a Scottish science writer and polymath, at a time when women's participation in science was disco...
