Van Arsdale, Perry (July 29, 1910 - July 22, 1976)

Perry Charles Van Arsdale (July 29, 1910 - July 22, 1976) was an American historian, researcher, linguist, and cartographer. Born in New York, New York, Van Arsdale held two Ph. D.s: one in romantic languages and the other in mechanical engineering. He retired from being a professor and consultant at the age of 45 'with enough money to see the project through'. He began making maps as a hobby, but it soon became his career. He started producing maps around 1965, after having spent nearly two decades traveling the United States, talking with the people that lived where he was traveling, and doing research in archives. He created 9 maps in total (New Mexico, Arizona, Colorado, Texas, Illinois, Northwest, Southwest, EastSouth, and a map of the United States illustrating American Indian Tribes and telling some of their history). All his maps were hand-drawn and hand-lettered and printed in extremely small print runs. His works include thousands of locations, hundreds of which likely only appear on his maps. He and his wife Mildred spent between 15 and 20 years (the historical record is unclear) traveling the country together gathering the information that Van Arsdale eventually compiled into his maps.