1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Arrowsmith

ARROWSMITH, the name of an English family of geographers. The first of them, Aaron Arrowsmith (1750–1823), migrated to London from Winston in Durham when about twenty years of age, and was employed by John Cary, the engraver. In 1790 he made himself famous by his large chart of the world on Mercator’s 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 (1796) and Scotland (1807) 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. They carried on the business in company with John Arrowsmith (1790–1873), nephew of the elder Aaron. In 1834 John published his London Atlas, the best set of maps then in existence. He followed up the atlas with a long series of elaborate and carefully executed maps, those of Australia, America, Africa and India being especially valuable. In 1863 he received the gold medal of the Royal Geographical Society, of which body he was one of the founders.