William J. Keeler (fl. c. 1856 - 1868) was an American civil engineer active during the second half of the 19th century. He is an elusive figure, and little is known of his birth and death dates, places, or early education. He appears in 1856, already working as a civil Engineer in Buffalo with the Erie Canal. In 1862 he received a civilian appointment, and possibly a honorary military rank, to work as an engineer at the Washington Naval Yard. He may also have worked at the Naval Yard in New York (Brooklyn). He was decommissioned in 1864 or 1865, after which he traveled west where he is recorded as an engineer with the Leavenworth, Lawrence and for Gibson Railroad Company. In 1865 he is also mentioned as working with the Union Pacific. In 1866 he was the chief engineer of the Kansas and Nesho Valley Railroad. He appears to have been employed with the department of the Interior Indian Bureau in by 1866 and/or 1867. He released his National Map of The Territory of The United States from the Mississippi River to the Pacific Ocean, one of the most important maps of the American west to appear in the 19th century, 1867. Although based upon government and railroad surveys, the map was a private publication and went through several subsequent editions, reissues, reformatting, and republications. Following the publication of the 2nd edition in 1868, Keeler seems to disappear from all record. More by this mapmaker...

Nicholas Du Bois (January 25, 1823 - August 8, 1879) was an engineer and draughtsman in the Washington D.C. General Land Office. Du Bois was born in Great Bend, Pennsylvania. Little is known of his early education, but in the 1850 census, he appears as an 'engineer'. By 1862, he was a clerk at the General Land Office. Subsequent reports from 1864 name him a draughtsman. He drafted William Keeler's seminal 1867 National Map of the Territory of the United States from the Mississippi River to the Pacific Ocean. By 1873, he was listed as an 'Assistant Surveyor'. Du Bois died in Washington, D.C. in 1879. Learn More...

Joseph Francis Gedney (November 4, 1828 - October 5, 1903) was a French-English-American engraver, printer, and lithographer. Gedney was born in Le Havre, Seine-Maritime, France, to a distinguished British family of Lincolnshire. He emigrated to the United States as a child, arriving at age 2 in 1831, in the wake of his mother's untimely 1830 death. It is unclear where he studied engraving, but he established himself on Maryland Avenue in Washington, D.C. in 1854, opening an engraving establishment. During the American Civil War (1861 - 1865), he served in the Union Army under John Aaron Rawlins (1831 - 1869). He completed both private and government contracts, including engraving and printing William Keeler's seminal 1867 National Map of the Territory of the United States from the Mississippi River to the Pacific Ocean. Gedney went on to acquire several important government printing contracts, which he retained until his 1903 death. Learn More...