born March 24, 1834, Mount Morris, N.Y., U.S.
died Sept. 23, 1902, Haven, Maine
U.S. geologist and ethnologist.
Powell took many expeditions (1871–79) down the Colorado River, describing the earliest of these in Exploration of the Colorado River of the West and Its Tributaries (1875). He developed the first comprehensive classification of American Indian languages (1877) and was the first director of the Smithsonian Institution's Bureau of American Ethnology (1879–1902). In 1881 he became director of the U.S. Geological Survey, where he worked extensively on mapping water sources and advancing irrigation projects.