Warren Upham

Who was Warren Upham?

Warren Upham was a geologist, archaeologist, and librarian who is best known for his studies of glacial Lake Agassiz. Upham worked as a geologist in New Hampshire before moving in 1879 to Minnesota to study the resources and glacial geology of that state. Upham's first major report on Lake Agassiz was published in 1890 by the Geological Survey of Canada, but the main product of his many years of study was published in 1895 as Monograph 25 of the U.S. Geological Survey's monograph series.

Upham graduated from Dartmouth College in 1871 and worked under Minnesota state geologist Newton H. Winchell. The Minnesota Historical Society published his landmark 735-page volume on place name origins, Minnesota Geographic Names: Their Origin and Historic Significance in 1920.