ARROWSMITH  , the name of an

English family of geographers . The first of them, Aaron Arrowsmith (1750—1823), migrated to London from Winston in Durham when about twenty years of age, and was employed by John Cary, the engraver . In 1790 he made himself famous by his large chart of the world on Mercator's projection . Four years later he published another large map of the world on the globular projection, with a companion volume of explanation . The maps of North America (1796) and Scotland (1807) are the most celebrated of his many later productions . He left two sons, Aaron and Samuel, the elder of whom was the compiler of the Eton Comparative Atlas, of a Biblical atlas, and of various manuals of geography . They carried on the business in company with John Arrowsmith (1790-1873), nephew of the elder Aaron . In 1834 John published his London Atlas, the best set of maps then in existence . He followed up the atlas with a long series of elaborate and carefully executed maps, those of Australia, America, Africa and India being especially valuable . In 1863 he received the gold medal of the Royal Geographical Society, of which body he was one of the founders .