Gilbert Thompson
| Gilbert Thompson | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Born |
March 21, 1839 Mendon, Massachusetts |
| Died | June 8, 1909 (aged 70) Washington D.C. |
| Occupation | soldier, draftsman and topographer |
| Employer | Union Army, U.S. Geological Survey |
| Known for | Participating in the Wheeler Survey, Co-founding the National Geographic Society |
Gilbert Thompson (21 March 1839 – 8 June 1909) was an American typographer, draftsman, topographer, and soldier.
Born on March 21, 1839 in of Mendon, Massachusetts, his father had helped combat the Dorr Rebellion in neighboring Rhode Island, and his great-grandmother was Deborah Sampson. At age ten his parents moved to the Utopian community of Hopedale, Massachusetts In Hopedale he trained to become a printer, and his first job was as a printer's assistant in a newspaper influenced by Adin Ballou. In 1861 he left to Boston, where he enlisted into the Union Army to fight in the American Civil War. The enlistment clerk wrote his profession as painter rather than printer when he signed up. This caused him to be changed from being an infantryman to becoming a combat engineer.
After the war, Thompson went to Washington DC, where he became associated with the US Geological Survey. In 1872 he joined the Wheeler Survey, under Lieutenant George Wheeler. He would stay on the Wheeler survey for the next seven years, making friends with the likes of Henry Wetherbee Henshaw, Rogers Birnie, and William Henry Rideing. In 1875 he led an expedition to Spirit Mountain in Nevada, of which he did the first topographical sketch. In 1879 he went into the Great Basin with Grove Karl Gilbert and John Welsey Powell.
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