Frederick James Hamilton Merrill (1861–1916) was an American geologist.

Frederick James Hamilton Merrill was born in New York City on April 30, 1861.

[1] He graduated at the Columbia School of Mines in 1885, received his Ph.D. there five years afterward, held a fellowship in geology at Columbia College (1886–1890), and was assistant in the New Jersey Geological Survey (1885–1889).

He was assistant director (1890–1894) and director (1894–1904) of the New York State Museum, and was in charge of the New York exhibit at the Columbian Exposition in Chicago in 1892, at the Buffalo Exhibition 1901, and at the St. Louis Exposition in 1904.

He afterward established himself in Los Angeles as a consulting mining geologist.