Albert H. Bumstead

In 1912, he became the topographer of the Yale University expedition to Peru under explorer Hiram Bingham III,[1] and by 1916 he was a cartographer at the National Geographic Society, where he would remain for 25 years.

To solve a navigational challenge faced by Admiral Richard E. Byrd and his first 1925 flights into North Greenland, because magnetic readings become less reliable in polar regions, Bumstead invented the Bumstead sun compass,[2] which uses sun-cast shadows to determine direction.

[3] Bumstead also made compasses for the Navy aviators in the Arctic expedition led by Donald Baxter MacMillan, and for Roald Amundsen for his trans-polar flight of the dirigible Norge in 1926.

[4] In addition, Bumstead devised a method for making marble bas-reliefs from photographs using a dual vision device, a prime with two reflecting surfaces.

Mount Bumstead in the Grosvenor Mountains in the Antarctic was named by Admiral Byrd in his honor.