| Summary: | Series D, Sheet 1 of Matthew Fontaine Maury's hydrographic charts depicting surface temperatures of the ocean in the Gulf of Mexico and the Atlantic Ocean off the Eastern seaboard of the United States. Matthew Fontaine Maury was born in Spotsylvania County, Virginia in 1806. His parents moved to Franklin, Tennessee in 1811. With the help of family friend Sam Houston, Maury joined the Navy as a midshipman aboard the Brandywine. After breaking his right leg in a stagecoach accident, Maury focused on studying navigation, naval meteorology, and oceanography. His work, The Physical Geography of the Sea, was the first comprehensive study on oceanography and earned him the nickname the "Father of Modern Oceanography." At the outbreak of the Civil War, Maury joined the Confederacy, serving as Chief of Sea Coast, River, and Harbor Defenses. One of his primary missions was to spread Confederate propaganda and purchase ships. After the war, Maury taught at Virginia Military Institute. He died on February 1, 1873 at his home in Lexington, Virginia.
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