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William John McGee was an American geologist, anthropologist, and hydrologist.
Background
William John McGee was born on April 17, 1853 in a log-cabin near Farley, Iowa, the fourth of nine children of James and Martha Ann (Anderson) McGee. His father was a native of Antrim, Ireland, who came to America in 1831; his mother, born in Kentucky, was also of Scotch-Irish descent. The boy spent the first years of his life on a farm.
Education
His mind early took its bent toward science and he studied by himself, with some assistance from an elder brother who had attended Cornell College. The habit of self-help led him into studies far beyond anything to be furnished on the frontier in the sixties. His formative years saw him striving for knowledge and material support. He tried blacksmithing and studied surveying.
Career
Becoming greatly interested in the structure of the earth, he made surveys of the geology of Iowa which he reported in the American Journal of Science (1878 - 82). During these investigations, mounds and other traces of former inhabitants of the prairies also came under his observation. The work he carried on independently attracted the attention of the United States Geological Survey, and in 1883, at the age of thirty, he was invited by Maj. J. W. Powell to become a member of that force. Soon he was given charge of the branch of the survey dealing with the geology of the Atlantic Coastal Plain, and during the years 1883-94 he conducted important studies of this area. McGee's official connection with anthropology began with his transfer in 1893 to the post of ethnologist in charge, in the Bureau of American Ethnology, of which his chief, Major Powell, was director. Bringing to the new work a genius for essential classification and the ability to inspire his younger helpers and colleagues, he gave the Bureau an impetus which was felt for years. His anthropological writings include some thirty titles. Noteworthy among the papers which he published in the Annual Reports of the Bureau were: "The Siouan Indians"; "Primitive Trephining in Peru"; "The Seri Indians"; and "Primitive Numbers". During Powell's last illness he assumed the administrative work, and at the time of Powell's death in 1902 was serving as acting director. The following year he resigned and took charge of the anthropological and historical exhibit at the Louisiana Purchase Exposition in St. Louis. He was subsequently appointed by President Roosevelt to the Inland Waterways Commission, and by the Secretary of Agriculture to take charge of the study of the water resources of the United States, an investigation begun in his surveys of Iowa. A report on this subject was his last contribution to science. His death, from cancer, occurred in his sixtieth year.
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Membership
a founding member of the Geological Society of America
Personality
Throughout his mature life McGee was known even to his friends by the initials only of his given names, and always signed himself W J McGee, without periods. Facile in expressing the stores of his mind, he delivered unnumbered addresses and discussions. Approachable, benevolent, willing to impart and to learn, he filled an important place in the scientific life of his time.
Connections
In 1888 McGee was married to Anita Newcomb, daughter of Simon Newcomb the astronomer. His wife survived him.