Aaron Arrowsmith

Who was Aaron Arrowsmith?

Aaron Arrowsmith was an English cartographer, engraver and publisher and founding member of the Arrowsmith family of geographers. He moved to Soho Square, London from Winston, County Durham when about twenty years of age, and was employed by John Cary, the engraver and William Faden. He became Hydrographer to the Prince of Wales ca. 1810 and subsequently to the King in 1820. In January 1790 he made himself famous by his large chart of the world on Mercator projection. Four years later he published another large map of the world on the globular projection, with a companion volume of explanation. The maps of North America and Scotland are the most celebrated of his many later productions. He left two sons, Aaron and Samuel, the elder of whom was the compiler of the Eton Comparative Atlas, of a Biblical atlas, and of various manuals of geography.

Aaron Arrowsmith the elder was responsible for organising the volume of maps for Rees's Cyclopaedia, 1802-1819.

The business was thus carried on in company with John Arrowsmith, nephew of the elder Aaron. In 1821, they published a more complete North American map from a combination of a maps obtained from the Hudson's Bay Company and Aaron's previous one.