Charles Anthony Schott was born at Mannheim, Baden, Germany on August 7, 1826.

In 1853 he received his naturalization papers as an American citizen, and in 1856 he was promoted to the grade of an assistant in the service.

Mr. Schott was a member of the Government parties that observed the total eclipse of the sun in August 1869, at Springfield, Illinois, and at Catania, Sicily, in December 1870.

He was also the author of many papers on hydrography, geodesy, tides, and meteorology, and physics of the globe in Smithsonian Institution publications.

The French Academy conferred on him its highest honor – a medal for his researches in terrestrial magnetism.