474 
THOMAS HAMPSON. 
THOMAS HAMPSON. 
Thomas Hampson was born in New York city in 1849. 
His early life was passed in the town of Newberg, N. Y., 
where he adopted the avocation of a printer. Having pre¬ 
pared himself by study after his day’s work was done, he 
entered Cornell College in 1869. Notwithstanding that he 
had to provide his own maintenance and, in addition, to 
keep up with his - studies, he took a high position in his 
class. To relieve the heavy tax upon his strength and by 
the advice of President White, always his warm friend, he 
left college in the third year of his course to accept a posi¬ 
tion in the Government Printing Office at Washington. In 
1874 he was graduated from Cornell and returned to Wash¬ 
ington to resume his place. His marked ability in this 
position becoming known, in 1875 he was offered and ac¬ 
cepted a clerkship in the Bureau of Education, with the 
duties of editor of its publications. In 1882 he entered the 
Law Department of Georgetown University, where he was 
graduated as Bachelor of Laws in 1884. In 1885 he left the 
Bureau of Education to accept a similar position, though 
with enlarged duties, in the United States Geological Survey, 
where he remained until his death, which occurred April 
23,1888. 
In addition to being a member of this Society, he belonged 
to the Cosmos Club and to the Anthropological Society of 
Washington. A few months before his death, in connec¬ 
tion with the last-named society, he became one of the 
editors of the “American Anthropologist.” 
Mr. Hampson belonged to the Philosophical Society, not 
because he cultivated a special branch of science in which 
his word was authority, but because he possessed a broad 
education and an enlightened culture which was in full 
harmony and sympathy with its spirit and aims. Strictly 
speaking, Mr. Hampson was not a scientific man. He neither 
professed nor coveted the title of scientist. Naturally of a 
