1898 Hendges and General Land Office Map of Alaska (Klondike Gold Rush)

Matthew Hendges (1852 - February 5, 1932) was an American draftsman. Born in Prussia, Hendges immigrated to the United States in 1880. By 1885, he lived in Washington, D.C., and worked for the General Land Office (GLO) as a draftsman. At some point, he became a naturalized U.S. citizen, but we have been unable to find a record of when this happened. He worked for the GLO until at least 1924. He died in Bad Homburg, Germany. More by this mapmaker...

Harry King (18xx - 19xx) was an American draftsman. King worked as Chief of the Draftsmen's Division of the General Land Office from at least 1895 and is credited with supervising the creation of numerous maps during his tenure. He was fired (or as it was put in one newspaper 'bounced to the exterior') by the Secretary of the Interior in January 1903 for corruption (he was making maps for individuals outside the Land Office during office hours and getting paid for it) and reportedly asking a female employee questions unrelated to her work (likely 1902 - 1903 newspaper speak for sexual harassment). King denied all the charges against him. We have been unable to locate any other information concerning King or his career. Learn More...

The General Land Office (GLO) (1812 - 1946) was an independent agency of the United States government responsible for public domain lands in the United States. Created in 1812, it took over functions previously conducted by the Department of the Treasury. The GLO oversaw the surveying, platting, and sale of public lands in the western United States. It also administered the Preemption Act of 1841, which allowed individuals who were already living on federal land to purchase up to 160 acres of land before it was offered for sale to the general public, if they met certain requirements. Following the passage of the Homestead Act in 1862, which was also administered by the GLO, claims under the Preemption Act sharply decreased. The GLO became a part of the newly-created Department of the Interior in 1849. In 1891 Grover Cleveland and Congress created 17 forest reserves, due to public concern over forest conservation, which were initially managed by the GLO, until they were transferred to the Forest Service in 1905. In 1946 the Government Land Office was merged with the United States Grazing Service to become the Bureau of Land Management. Today the Bureau of Land Management administers the roughly 246 million acres of public land remaining under federal ownership. Learn More...

Norris Peters (c. 1834 – July 15, 1889) was a Washington D.C. based photo-lithographer active in the late 18th and early 19th century whom Scientific American called 'one of Washington's most eccentric and mysterious figures.' Peters was born and educated in Pennsylvania. He relocated as a young man to Washington D.C. where he took work as an examiner for the United States Patent Office. During his work with the patent office he became fascinated with the emergent process of photolithography. In 1869 Peters secured substantial venture capital of about 100,000 USD from an unknown investor and founded The Norris Peters Company at 458 Pennsylvania Avenue. Their printing offices have been described as 'unequaled in this or any other country.' From these offices Peters pioneered the development of American photo-lithography. For nearly a generation he held a near monopoly on government photo-lithographic printing. Among their more notable contracts included numerous maps for congressional reports, maps of the U.S. Coast Survey, maps of the U.S. Geological Survey, Mexican currency for the State of Chihuahua, and the Official Gazette of the Patent Office. Peters also maintained an interesting social life and was a confidant to many of the most powerful figures in Congress. He was also a bon vivant known for being an excellent cook and hosting lavish dinners, the invitations to which were 'never declined'. Despite being socially active he never married and died a confirmed bachelor. Following Peters' death in 1889 his business was taken over by Henry Van Arsdale Parsell who administered it until his own death in 1901. The company then merged with Webb & Borcorselski, another D.C. lithography firm, and was renamed Webb & Borcorselski-Norris Peters. They continued to publish under this name well into the mid 20th century. Learn More...