Herbert Gouverneur Ogden
Quick Facts
Biography
Herbert Gouverneur Ogden (1846-1906) was an American geographer, topographer, civil engineer, and cartographer.
Biography
Ogden was born on April 4, 1846, in New York City. In 1863 he joined the US Coast and Geodetic Survey, where he originally worked on the defenses of Washington DC during the American Civil War. The following year he went to map the coast of North Carolina for the Union Navy. In 1865 he went on an expedition to Nicaragua, and in 1870 to Panama and the Darien. He married in Brooklyn, in 1872, and co-founded the National Geographic Society in 1888. In 1890 while at the US Coast and Geodetic Survey, Ogden was named by President Benjamin Harrison in Executive Order No. 28 as a member of the newly created Board on Geographic Names, where he served under Thomas Mendenhall, the first chairman of the Board on Geographic Names.In 1893 he mapped the Alaska-Canada border. He was a vice-president of the National Geographic Society.
Ogden passed away on February 25, 1906. Resting place in Oak Hill Cemetery, Washington DC.