HOLMES, William Henry, geologist, born in Harrison county, Ohio, 1 December, 1846. He was graduated at the McNeely normal college in 1870, after which, for two years, he was engaged in teaching in normal schools. In 1872 he was appointed assistant on the United States geological survey, and spent eight years in field work and explorations in the Rocky mountain region under Dr. Ferdinand V. Hayden, and later under Major John W. Powell. Subsequently He spent a year abroad in travel and study, and in 1882 visited Mexico in pursuit of archeological knowledge. In 1881, when the survey was established on its present basis, he was made geologist in charge of the division of illustrations. In this capacity he has acquired considerable reputation as a painter in water colors, and has furnished numerous illustrations and panoramas of the scenery of the far west that have been used in the reports of the geological survey. Mr. Holmes has edited Hayden's "Atlas of Colorado," that of the "Yellowstone Country," the 11th and 12th annual reports of the geological survey, and other geological publications; and he has contributed geological reports for Hayden's annual reports of 1874-'6 and 1878, and numerous papers on aboriginal American art and archaeology to the Smithsonian institution, which have been published in the annual reports of the bureau of ethnology.