Albert Hoit Bumstead (1875 - 1940)

Bumstead was an American cartographer and inventor, born in Boston in 1875, and attended Worcester Academy. He went to Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI) and studied civil engineering. After WPI, he was a surveyor for the U.S. Geological Survey. In 1912, he was the topographer of the Yale University expedition to Peru, and by 1916 he was a cartographer at the National Geographic Society.

Bumstead invented three sun compasses used by Admiral Richard Byrd and by the Navy aviators in the Arctic expedition led by Donald MacMillan. In addition, he developed a method for making marble bas-reliefs from photographs using a dual vision device, a prime with two reflecting surfaces.