Detail #2 of Ruth Elder Hydrographic Office Chart

Matthew Fontaine Maury is the father of modern hydrography in the United States Navy. He served as superintendent of the U.S. Naval Observatory from its founding to the start of the Civil War, when he resign to supervise maritime defenses for the Confederacy. This chart pays tribute to his leading role in establishing the charting and scientific studies that were critical to the ascendancy of the United States as a maritime economic and military power in the nineteenth century.

Caption:
Matthew Fontaine Maury is the father of modern hydrography in the United States Navy.
Type: Map
Credit: National Air and Space Museum, Smithsonian Institution.
NASM-9A08391-Maury
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Matthew Fontaine Maury is the father of modern hydrography in the United States Navy.

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Aviator Ruth Elder and her co-pilot/instructor George Haldeman disappeared over the Atlantic creating a desperate scramble to determine their whereabouts.