John W. Sullivan

John W. Sullivan was an Irish-Canadian mathematician, astronomer, and explorer who took part in the Palliser Expedition in the 19th century.

Biography

Sullivan taught at the Royal Naval College in Greenwich, England. On the recommendation of fellow Naval College faculty member Edward Purcell, he became the astronomer and secretary on the Palliser Expedition that explored and surveyed what is now western Canada from 1857 to 1860.^[1]^[2]

As part of his explorations, Sullivan described the Nakoda people,^[3] and was the first to record the Sarcee language.^[4]

Mount Sullivan, a peak near Dease Lake (British Columbia), is named after Sullivan.^[5]

^ Larmour, Judy (2005), Laying Down the Lines: A History of Land Surveying in Alberta, Brindle and Glass, p. 7, ISBN 978-1-897142-04-2.
^ Davis, Richard Clarke; Ruggles, Richard I. (1988), Rupert's Land: a cultural tapestry, Calgary Institute for the Humanities Series, Wilfrid Laurier Univ. Press, p. 197, ISBN 978-0-88920-976-3.
^ Oltmann, Ruth (1997), My Valley: The Kananaskis, Rocky Mountain Books, p. 13, ISBN 978-0-921102-40-3.
^ Cook, Eung-Do (1984), A Sarcee grammar, UBC Press, p. 3, ISBN 978-0-7748-0200-0.
^ Spry, Irene M. (1959), "Captain John Palliser and the Exploration of Western Canada", The Geographical Journal, 125 (2): 149–184, doi:10.2307/1790499, JSTOR 1790499.

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