Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography/Kohl, John George

KOHL, John George, traveller, b. in Bremen, Germany, 28 April, 1808; d. there, 28 Oct., 1878. He studied law at the universities of Heidelberg, Göttingen, and Munich, and after spending six years as a tutor in Courland, visited Russia. Subsequently he travelled through Europe and published numerous works. Having collected material relating to the early history of America, he came to this country in 1854 and remained until 1858, when he returned to Bremen and became city librarian in 1863. He prepared for the U. S. government a series of valuable maps of America, and published, at the request of the U. S. coast survey, the “History of the Discovery of the U. S. Coast” and the “History and Investigation of the Gulf Stream” (Bremen, 1868). Those of his publications that relate to this country, many of which have been translated into English, are “Travels in Canada” (Stuttgart, 1856); “Travels in the United States” (New York, 1857); “History of the Two Oldest Charts of the New World” (Weimar, 1860); “History of the Discovery of the Northeastern Coast of America” (“Maine Historical Collections,” Portland, 1869); a series of lectures entitled “History of the discovery of America” (Dresden, 1861; English translation, 1862); and “History of the Discovery and Voyage through the Straits of Magellan” (Berlin, 1877). He also published a “Lecture on the Plan of a Chartographical Depot for the History and Geography of the American Continent” (Smithsonian reports, Washington, 1856), and a descriptive catalogue of those maps, charts, and surveys relating to America that are mentioned in vol. iii. of Hakluyt's “Voyages” (1857).