Joseph S. Harris and the U.S. Northwest Boundary Survey, 1857-1861

Precis of Joseph S. Harris…

In 1857, twenty-year old Joseph Harris joins the U.S. Northwest Boundary Commission whose assignment was to define the boundary between the United States and British Canada. As an astronomer and surveyor, he has been trained by the U.S. Coast Survey to use the new Zenith telescope and the new Talcott method of astronomical surveying. In over 200 letters to his family and in his Autobiography, he describes the task of surveying 410 miles along the 49^th parallel fr...