Friedrich Handtke (December 7, 1815 - January 25, 1879) was a German engraver and cartographer active in the second half of the 19th century. Handtke was formally trained as a surveyor in the Prussian army. Following his discharge in 1838 he took a position as the head of cartography at the Głogów, Poland, publishing house of Carl Flemming. Initially, Handtke, in an attempt to hide his youth, inscribed his map publications as "Dr. Karl Sohr". From 1838 to 1874, Handtke and Flemming issued some 260 maps, about 168 of which Handke drew himself. Both Flemming and Handke died in 1879 leaving the powerful Flemming publishing house without its heads. Nonetheless, the firm continued to publish, and republish, well into the 20th century. Głogów, where Handtke was based, is currently part of modern day Poland's Lower Silesian Voivodeship. More by this mapmaker...

John Pope (March 16, 1822 - September 23, 1892) was an American military officer active in the middle part of the 19th century. Pope was born in Louisville Kentucky to a prominent family with close ties to future president Abraham Lincoln. He graded from West Point in 1842 and served in the Mexican American War before being appointed to the Army Bureau of Topographical Engineers. He served briefly under explorer John C. Fremont, but the two never really got along. During the American Civil War, Pope, now a Major General successfully led several campaigns in the Western Theater, including the strategic capture of the fortified Mississippi River Island No. 10, near New Madrid, Missouri. He was subsequently reassigned to the Eastern Front where he was less successful ultimately suffering a disastrous defeat in the Second Battle of Bull Run. Following the Civil War, Pope served briefly as Reconstruction Governor of the Third Military District (Georgia, Florida, and Alabama) and was eventually sent west for the Apache Wars. Despite having a brash argumentative manner, he argued for humane treatment of Native Americans and campaigned against the activities of the corrupt Indian Bureau. Pope retired in 1886 and died at the Ohio Soldiers Home in Sandusky, Ohio. Learn More...

John T. Bowen (b. c. 1801 - 1856) was a lithographer active in Philadelphia during the mid-19th century. Born in England, Bowen immigrated to the United States in 1834 and worked as a colorist and lithographer in New York City before moving to Philadelphia in 1838, most like with his collaborator and lithographic artist Alfred Hoffy. Once in Philadelphia, Bowen took over the business of Wild and Chevalier, located at 94 Walnut Street, and began publishing History of the Indian Tribes by McKenney and Hall. He also acquired the rights to Wild and Chevalier's series of views of Philadelphia, which he reissued at the end of 1838 and again in a hand colored edition in 1848. By the early 1840s, Bowen's work was garnering praise, and gained a reputation as one of the best lithographers in Philadelphia. He published the 'Architect's Digest' in 1839 and printed plates for Audubon's Quadrupeds (1845 - 1848) and the octavo edition of Birds of America (1839 - 1844). Despite numerous successes, Bowen field for bankruptcy in 1842, though it did not prove to be too much of a hindrance to his career, as, after 1844, he began working predominantly with Audubon and his sons on their works. Over the course of his career, Bowen became the preeminent Philadelphia lithographer and the most important mid-19th century American publisher of publication plates. By Bowen's death in 1856, he had a fairly substantial estate and a prosperous business. His wife, Lavinia, with whom he had a son, took over the business after her husband's passing and the firm Bowen and Company operated until around 1870. Learn More...