Howell, Reading
Reading Howell (1743 - 1827) was a Pennsylvania based engineer, landowner, and surveyor active in the late 18th and early 19th century. While little is known of his personal life, records do survive of his surveying projects, including detailed surveys of the Delaware, Lehigh, and Schuylkill Rivers. In 1789 he was commissioned by the assembly of Pennsylvania to, for the sum of two hundred pounds, to produce a detailed map of the state. This map, which was initially published in 1792, was the first map of Pennsylvania to be issued following the American Revolutionary War. This important document would prove to be the finest and most important map of Pennsylvania to be issued to date, incorporating, as it did, the wealth of cartographic information generated by both American and British military surveyors during the Revolution. From 1804 to his death in 1827, Howell held the title of "Principal City Surveyor" as well as "City Regulator" of Philadelphia, where his name is attached to numerous surveys related to land disputes.
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