POWELL, JOHN WESLEY American geologist and ethnologist, was born at Mount Morris, N.Y., March 24, 1834. His parents were of English birth, but had moved to America in 183o, and he was educated at Illinois and Oberlin colleges. He began his geological work with a series of field trips including a trip throughout the length of the Mississippi in a rowboat, the length of the Ohio, and of the Illinois. When the Civil War broke out he entered the Union Army as a private, and at the battle of Shiloh he lost his right arm but continued in active service, reaching the rank of major of volunteers. In 1865 he was appointed professor of geology and curator of the museum in the Illinois Wesleyan university at Bloomington, and afterwards at the Normal university.
In 1867 he commenced a series of expeditions to the Rocky Mountains and the canyons of the Green and Colorado rivers, during the course of which (1869) he made a daring boat-journey of three months through the Grand Canyon ; he also made a special study of the Indians and their languages for the Smithsonian Institution, in which he founded and directed a bureau of eth nology. His able work led to the establishment under the U.S.
Government of the geographical and geological survey of the Rocky Mountain region with which he was occupied from 187o to 1879. This survey was incorporated with the United States geological and geographical survey in 1879, when Powell became director of the bureau of ethnology. In 1881, Powell was ap pointed director also of the geological survey, a post which he occupied until 1894. He died in Haven, Me., on Sept. 23, 1902.