Osborn Maitland Miller (1897–1979) was a

Scottish-American Scottish Americans or Scots Americans (Scottish Gaelic language, Scottish Gaelic: ''Ameireaganaich Albannach''; sco, Scots-American) are Americans whose ancestry originates wholly or partly in Scotland. Scottish people, Scottish Americans are cl ...

cartographer, surveyor and aerial photographer. A member of several expeditions himself, he also acted as adviser to other explorers. He developed several

map projections In cartography, map projection is the term used to describe a broad set of transformations employed to represent the two-dimensional curved surface of a globe on a plane. In a map projection, coordinates, often expressed as latitude and longitud ...

, including the Bipolar Oblique Conic Conformal, the Miller Oblated Stereographic, and most notably the Miller Cylindrical in 1942. The Maitland Glacier in Antarctica was named after Miller in 1952. He was awarded the

Charles P. Daly Medal The Charles P. Daly Medal is awarded to individuals by the American Geographical Society (AGS) "for valuable or distinguished geographical services or labors." The medal was established in 1902. This medal was originally designed by Victor D. Bren ...

in 1962. Miller was born in

Perth Perth is the capital and largest city of the Australian state of Western Australia. It is the fourth most populous city in Australia and Oceania, with a population of 2.1 million (80% of the state) living in Greater Perth in 2020. Perth is ...

in 1897, and educated at

Glenalmond College Glenalmond College is a co-educational independent boarding school in Perth and Kinross, Scotland, for children aged between 12 and 18 years. It is situated on the River Almond near the village of Methven, about west of the city of Perth. T ...

and the

Royal Military Academy, Woolwich The Royal Military Academy (RMA) at Woolwich, in south-east London, was a British Army military academy for the training of commissioned officers of the Royal Artillery and Royal Engineers. It later also trained officers of the Royal Corps of Sig ...

, after which he served as a regular officer in the

Royal Field Artillery The Royal Field Artillery (RFA) of the British Army provided close artillery support for the infantry. It came into being when created as a distinct arm of the Royal Regiment of Artillery on 1 July 1899, serving alongside the other two arms of t ...

in the First World War, being awarded the

Military Cross The Military Cross (MC) is the third-level (second-level pre-1993) military decoration awarded to officers and (since 1993) other ranks of the British Armed Forces, and formerly awarded to officers of other Commonwealth countries. The MC i ...

in 1917. Miller worked for the

American Geographical Society The American Geographical Society (AGS) is an organization of professional geographers, founded in 1851 in New York City. Most fellows of the society are Americans, but among them have always been a significant number of fellows from around the ...

from 1922 until 1968, and the Osborn Maitland Miller Cartographic Medal for "outstanding contributions in the field of cartography or geodesy" was established in his honour.

References

1897 births 1979 deaths American cartographers People from Perth, Scotland Scottish cartographers People educated at Glenalmond College Royal Field Artillery officers Recipients of the Military Cross British Army personnel of World War I Scottish inventors British emigrants to the United States 20th-century cartographers 20th-century Scottish people Aerial photographers Scottish photographers 20th-century American photographers Scottish explorers American explorers 20th-century American people Graduates of the Royal Military Academy, Woolwich American Geographical Society 20th-century American inventors {{cartography-stub