260 ROCHESTER ACADEMY OF SCIENCE 



was not the vocation for which he was best fitted. At any rate he 

 returned to Rochester, and at a time of financial stress in the Ward 

 establishment he purchased one-half interest in the mineralogic and 

 geologic material of the institution, and until 1892 the geological 

 branch of the business was in the firm name of Ward & Howell. 

 In 1875 he constructed a relief map of the Grand Canyon of the 

 Colorado, for the United States Government exhibit at the Cen- 

 tennial Fair at Philadelphia in 1876. He claimed that his relief 

 map of the island of San Domingo, made in 1870, was the first 

 relief map made in the United States. In 1892, on the reorganiza- 

 tion of the Ward establishment, he disposed of his interest and 

 removed to Washington, D. C, where he organized his own estab- 

 lishment, which he called "The Microcosm," somewhat after Ward's 

 original building called "Cosmos Hall," but restricted to geologic 

 materials and relief maps. Of this work Gilbert wrote : 



"The modeling of relief maps, in which work he was a pioneer, — if not 

 the pioneer — for the United States, soon became a specialty ; and his monu- 

 ment for a generation at least will consist in the plastic representations of 

 physiography, topography, and geologic structure which adorn the halls 

 and walls of museums and school-rooms throughout the continent. 



Personally, Howell was quiet, unassuming and sincere. He recognized 

 that integrity was an important factor in his business success. H he had 

 enemies or detractors, I have not met them. . . . His clients found him 

 ever clamorous for facts and anxious to revise work at any stage if it 

 could thus be made more truthful ; and his clients, who were numerous 

 among the investigators and teachers of geology and geography, were also 

 his friends." 



The University of Rochester recognized some special studies and 

 conferred on him the degree Master of Arts (Honorary) in 1880. 



After the reorganization of the Academy in 1888 Howell became 

 active in the Society, being Chairman of the Section of Geology, 

 1889-1891 ; and Treasurer of the Academy, 1890-1891. 



The bibliography of the U. S. Geological Survey credits Howell 

 with five titles of reports for 1874-1877, three being in collaboration 

 with Gilbert and others. The first volume of the Academy Pro- 

 ceedings contains two articles by him in 1890, 1891, describing nine 

 new meteorites. Other papers on meteorites were printed in the 

 American Journal of Science for 1887, 1888, 1892 and 1895. 



