MATTHES, FRANOIS-EMILE

born March 16, 1874, Amsterdam, Neth. died June 21, 1948, Berkeley, Calif., U.S. Dutch-born American geologist and topographer whose mapping of some of the most rugged and scenic features of the western United States was instrumental in the establishment of several notable national parks. His education, begun in The Netherlands, Switzerland, and Germany, was continued at Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Harvard University. He became a U.S. citizen in 1896; and as topographer with the U.S. Geological Survey (18961913) mapped the Bighorn Mountains and Glacier National Park in Wyoming and Montana, the Grand Canyon in Arizona, Yosemite Valley in California, Mount Rainier in Washington, and other western areas. His beautiful sketching of these maps probably never has been equaled. Following the 1906 California earthquake, he was assigned by the investigatory commission to map the San Andreas fault. Matthes later concentrated on geologic problems and attained distinction as a geomorphologist and glacialist. His investigations in the Sierra Nevadas, California, culminated in his classic Geologic History of the Yosemite Valley (1930). He organized the program of systematic glacier observations in North America, part of a worldwide study of climatic fluctuations as indicated by changes in existing glaciers. Highly artistic, he was also a writer of rare excellence.