This copy of Jedidiah Morse's The American Geography; or, a View of the Present Situation of the United States of America (1789; 280 pages) contains annotations by Indian agent George Morgan.
The printed matter consists of the first 280 pages of Morse's text, with blank pages separating each printed page. Morgan composed most of his notes on the plain pages but sometimes wrote directly over printed text; parts of some later pages have been cut out of the volume. Morgan provided commentary on Morse's errors and misconceptions, especially regarding geographical features, historical events, and Native Americans. He discussed European views of Native Americans, attempted to correct the biases that he discovered, and copied a creation story he had heard from a Wyandotte or Iroquois chief while observing mammoth bones (pp. 55-58). Other notes refer to the American Revolution, European settlement in North America, and the character of early European colonists. Morgan also occasionally mentioned the work of other historians or geographers. His latest notes are dated 1791. A newspaper clipping containing reprinted letter about the discovery of Uranus is pinned into the volume after the table of contents.
George Morgan was born in Philadelphia on February 14, 1743, the son of Evan Morgan and Joanna Biles. As a teenager, he worked for the Philadelphia firm Baynton & Wharton, which became Baynton, Wharton & Morgan in 1763. He married Mary Baynton, the senior partner's daughter, with whom he had 11 children. Morgan became involved in the Illinois trade shortly after the end of the French and Indian War, and he traveled west with George Croghan around 1766. He returned to Philadelphia in the early 1770s, following a long-running feud with British army officer John Wilkins. Baynton, Wharton & Morgan dissolved around this period, and Morgan became involved in the Indiana Company until the outbreak of the Revolutionary War. In 1776, he was appointed Indian agent for the Middle Department, a position he held until his resignation in May 1779. He lived in Prospect, New Jersey, until 1789, when he led an expedition to "New Madrid" in Spanish-held territory. In 1796, he moved to Morganza, Pennsylvania, where he died on March 10, 1810.
