We regret to report that the map world (and particularly UT Arlington’s Virginia Garrett Cartographic History Library) has lost one of its most enthusiastic and long-time supporters, Mr. Lewis M. Buttery, who died at his home in Lampasas, Texas, on December 20th. A native of San Angelo, Texas, Mr. Buttery grew up with a love of maps and history. He completed courses in surveying and mapping at Texas A&M in the summer of 1941, then enlisted in the U.S. Navy following the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor.

After completing Midshipman’s School at Columbia University, Buttery served as a Gunnery and Aerological Officer aboard ships in the Pacific Theater. For a brief time he was Executive Officer of U.S.S. PCE (Patrol Craft, Escort) 880. Soon after World War II, Mr. Buttery earned a bachelor’s degree in chemical engineering from the University of Texas at Austin and married Virginia Kerzee in Point Enterprise, Limestone County, Texas.

During a long career as an engineer for Monsanto Chemical Company and Bonner & Moore Consulting Company, Mr. Buttery traveled extensively and acquired numerous maps and atlases, many of which he and his wife Virginia donated to the University of Texas at Arlington Library’s Cartographic History Library beginning in 1986. Mr. Buttery was a founding member of the Texas Map Society and author of numerous monograph and map facsimile portfolios devoted to early Texas. His analysis of historic maps benefitted from his practical scientific knowledge of maps, surveying, and navigation. Among the diverse cartographic items that drew his attention were maps by U.S. Army officers Randolph B. Marcy and William H. Emory, maps produced by the firms of John & Charles Walker, August Petermann, Adolf Stieler, and Richard Andree, an unusual XIT Ranch map produced by the Capitol Freehold Land and Investment Company, and cloth survival charts issued to American aviators.

Mr. Buttery’s most recent work, Regional Maps of Texas: 1720-2001; Region 1 North Texas (Lampasas, Texas: Old Maps of the Southwest, Spring 2004), contains many valuable insights about the mapping history of large portions of Texas. The maps he and his wife donated and the works he published will continue to educate future generations interested in cartographic history. We appreciate his efforts on behalf of the history of cartography and we would also like to convey our sympathy to his family and friends.

A compass rose is a circle graduated to degrees in quarter points and printed on a chart or map for reference.