A. D. Wilson

A.D. Wilson (Allen David Wilson) (September 17, 1844 – February 21, 1920) was an American cartographer.

He was born in Sparta, Illinois. He left school and in March 1867, enlisted with the Geological Survey of California. There he learned triangulation. In July 1868, he joined Clarence King for his Geological Exploration of the Fortieth Parallel and stayed with him through 1872. Wilson then joined Ferdinand Vandeveer Hayden, and between 1873 and 1878 he triangulated across western Colorado, western Wyoming, and eastern Idaho. In 1879, Hayden's Survey was merged with others to form the U.S. Geological Survey. Clarence King named Wilson the chief topographer of the USGS.

Wilson resigned from the USGS on September 30, 1881, in order to become chief topographer for the Northern Transcontinental Survey, organized by Raphael Pumpelly. Henry Villard, president of the Northern Pacific Railroad, had invited Pumpelly to map the sprawling areas of Washington, Idaho, and Montana and to identify the economic resources near the railroad lines. Pumpelly published part of that survey in his report for the Tenth Census, including at least one of Wilson's maps.

During the 1890s, Wilson relocated to Oakland, California, where he and other civic leaders organized the Athenian Bank (later renamed the Security Bank and Trust of Oakland). In 1918, the bank was absorbed by the Bank of Italy and soon thereafter became the Bank of America. He died of influenza on February 21, 1920, in Oakland, California.

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