Henry Mitchell was an American hydrographer and engineer.
Background
Henry Mitchell was the son of William Mitchell, 1791-1869, and Lydia (Coleman) Mitchell, came of Quaker stock long settled in America. He was born and reared in Nantucket, Massachussets, at a time when whaling furnished the basis of the prosperity there and Nantucket whalers were ranging the seas from the Arctic to the Antarctic. The nature of its industry fostered in the island community the study of navigation, including mathematics and astronomy. His mother had been a teacher prior to her marriage; his sister, Maria Mitchell, twelve years his senior, was busily engaged at home in her astronomical labors; while his father, a teacher and later a bank official and one of the overseers of Harvard College, was an able astronomer who enjoyed a wide acquaintance among American men of science.
Education
Mitchell's education was obtained in private schools and also at home, where his immediate family furnished good examples and excellent instructors.
Career
In 1849, Mitchell entered the Coast Survey. At first assigned to triangulation, he was later transferred to hydrographic work, in which field his abilities soon became manifest. After serving several years in junior capacities, he was assigned to make tide and current investigations in various harbors of the North Atlantic states. The results of his researches are embodied in numerous papers which appeared principally in the annual reports of the Coast Survey between the years 1854 and 1888. In these investigations his attention was directed particularly to the study of the tidal régime as related to hydrographic features, and he was successful in elucidating the complex of forces and factors at work in maintaining or changing shore lines and channels. He was elected to membership in various scientific societies; in 1867 Harvard conferred upon him the degree of M. A. , in 1869 he was appointed professor of physical hydrography at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and in 1875 was made a member of the National Academy of Sciences. In 1888, after thirty-nine years' service, he resigned from the Coast Survey. The following year he was offered the superintendency of the Survey by President Harrison, but his health did not permit him to assume the burdens of the office. He thereafter lived a quiet, studious life, and with his wife and daughter spent his summers at Nantucket and his winters near Boston. During this period, he wrote a biographical sketch of Maria Mitchell, and one of Ferdinand de Lesseps. Mitchell's death occurred about nine months thereafter, at the home of his daughter in New York City.
Achievements
Recognized as the leading hydrographer in America, Mitchell was drafted into the service of various government commissions. In 1868, he was sent to Europe to report on hydrographic and engineering progress, and while there he made an inspection of the Suez Canal, his report, entitled "The Coast of Egypt and the Suez Canal, " appearing in the North American Review for October 1869. He was consulting engineer for various harbors. In 1874, he was appointed a member of the commission on the construction of an interoceanic ship canal to make an inspection and investigation of proposed routes. That same year, he was appointed by President Grant a member of the board of engineers to survey the mouth of the Mississippi River, and in 1879 President Hayes appointed him a member of the Mississippi River commission. His scientific attainments likewise received wide recognition.
Membership
a member of the National Academy of Sciences
Connections
Mitchell was married three times: first, to Mary Dawes of Boston, who died twelve years later; second, in 1873, to Margaret Hayward, who died in 1875, about five months after the birth of a daughter, his only child; and third, two years later, to his deceased wife's elder sister, Mary Hayward, who died in March 1902.
