Recently, Dr. Timothy C. Hemmis, Associate Professor of History at Texas A&M University-Central Texas, has been named a 2025-2026 fellow at the George Washington Presidential Library at Mount Vernon in Virginia. Research fellows get access to premiere eighteenth and nineteenth centuries primary sources and is an excellent opportunity for scholars such as Dr. Hemmis who are interested in studying the early American period, which helps Americans get a better understanding of our history.
While at the George Washington Presidential Library, Dr. Hemmis will be researching for his latest book project tentatively titled: A Man Caught In Between: Mapping, Espionage, and the Life of the Geographer of the United States, Thomas Hutchins, 1730-1790 examine the role that Captain Thomas Hutchins played in the creation of the United States, and his life as a case study of how American identity evolved throughout the Revolutionary Era, but also how his maps and writings inspired the concept of American Manifest Destiny and westward expansion long before it was a buzz word in the mid-nineteenth century.
For decades, historians have overlooked the contributions of geographers to the Early Republic, Thomas Hutchins is often mentioned in various books, but there is no standalone biography. In the eighteenth century, surveyors and geographers were treasured resources for an army and the young nation. During the American War for Independence, the service men like Hutchins provided were indispensable to both the British and Continental Armies. During the American Revolution, Hutchins was one of a highest-ranking British officer to defect to the American side. After the war, Hutchins’ work as a cartographer set up the survey system for the Old Northwest Territory (present-day Ohio) and help settle boundary disputes between states. Additionally, Hutchins also proposed an expedition to the Pacific Ocean about twenty years before the famous Lewis and Clark Expedition. Hutchin’s accurate maps and his keen observations helped boost America’s appetite for the west that also became part of its unique identity.