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
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