Stars And Boundaries, Henry Smith Pritchett

The United States and Canada had argued and negotiated for seventy years over the boundary line between Canada and American Alaska. Sometimes the discussions became quite heated. So the commission debating the matter turned to a Missouri stargazer and asked him to draw an exact map fairly representing the claims of both countries. Henry Smith Pritchett took on a job diplomats had been unable to do for seven decades. Look at your map. The boundary line between Alaska and Canada is the one Pritchett drew. That’s not a bad accomplishment for a man whose father almost didn’t let him graduate from college because of a prank. His father was president of Howard College in Fayette and left to head up Pritchett Institute in Glascow, Missouri.

AUDIO: AOWM April 16, 2005 (mp3)