Vol. XIII, No. n WASHINGTON November, 1902 



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JOHN WESLEY POWELL 



JOHN WESLEY POWELL died at 

 his summer home in Maine Sep- 

 tember 23, 1902. He was born at 

 Mount Morris, New York, March 

 24, 1834. Few men in the history of 

 the United States have left behind 

 them such a deep and lasting impres- 

 sion on the practical scientific work of 

 the nation. 



Major Powell was of English parent- 

 age, his father and mother settling in 

 the United States a few months before 

 his birth. He passed his boyhood 

 working and managing his father's 

 farm and gaining such education as 

 the rural community could offer. Later 

 he supported himself by teaching school, 

 meanwhile working hard at his favorite 

 studies, natural history and geology. 

 In the pursuit of specimens for his col- 

 lections he made long voyages in a skiff 

 on the Mississippi, Ohio, and Illinois 

 Rivers in the years preceding the Civil 

 War. He served in the Union Army 

 throughout the war and gained the 

 rank of lieutenant-colonel, but he has 

 always been known to the public as 

 Major (not Colonel) Powell. He had 

 lost his arm in the battle of Shiloh, 

 and, as the wound never completely 

 healed, he suffered fearful torture at 

 times during: the rest of his life. 



The public will probably always 

 remember Major Powell most promi- 

 nently for his dramatic exploration of 

 the Grand Canyon of the Colorado in 

 1868 and 1869. His modest official 

 narrative of the journey for hundreds 

 of miles between the perpendicular 

 walls of the canyon aroused intense 

 feeling throughout the country and is 

 still read with unabating interest. 



In 1879 Major Powell was appointed 

 the first Director of the Bureau of 

 American Ethnology, at the head of 

 which he remained until his death. 

 In 1 88 1 he was also appointed Director 

 of the United States Geological Survey, 

 and for thirteen years guided the policy 

 of the Survey. In this brief article it 

 is possible to mention only some of the 

 work he organized and developed while 

 at the head of these great bureaus, in 

 whose formation he had also taken a 

 prominent part — the importance of an 

 adequate topographic mapping of the 

 United States, the necessity of irriga- 

 tion to the West, and principally the 

 definite and sympathetic study of the 

 American Indians. 



During the last years of his life, in 

 order that he might give his time to his 

 personal studies in psychology and 

 philosophy, Major Powell entrusted to 



