Ernst Georg Ravenstein was born on December 30, 1834, in Frankfurt-am-Main, Germany, the son of a German cartographer and publisher Fridrich August Ravenstein (1809-1881), founder of Ravenstein's Geographische Verlagsanstalt (1830-2001).

He was a German-English cartographer, geographer, statistician, and author. He emigrated to England around 1851 and became a pupil of Dr. August Heinrich Petermann. As a naturalized British subject, he served at the Topographical Department of the British War Office for twenty years (1855-1875). He was a member of the Royal Statistical and Royal Geographical Societies and held the position of Professor of Geography at Bedford College (1882–1883). In 1902, the Royal Geographical Society awarded him the first Victoria gold medal. Ravenstein is best known for his ground-breaking "The Laws of Migration" (1876), a detailed study of human movement, which still forms the basis for modern migration theory. His "Map of Eastern Equatorial Africa" (1881-1883) ranks as one of the most remarkable cartographic works of the 19th century. He was the author of several books, e.g., "The Russians on the Amur" (1861), "Handy Volume Atlas" (1895), and "Vasco da Gama's First Voyage" (1898).

In 1858, he married Sarah Parry (1836-). He died on March 13, 1913, in Hofheim, Hesse, Germany.

Dr. Charles Rau was born in 1826 in Vervien, Belgium.

He was an archeologist and author. He attended the University of Heidelberg, Germany. In 1848, Rau emigrated to the United States, where he taught foreign languages at schools in Illinois and New York City. While teaching, he conducted anthropological research on aboriginal Americans. He was appointed Resident Collaborator in Ethnology, United States National Museum, in 1875 and was given the responsibility for setting up the Smithsonian Institution's anthropological exhibits at the 1876 Philadelphia Centennial Exhibition. From 1875 until his death, Rau was Curator of the Department of Antiquities at the Smithsonian Institution. He wrote articles and books on native Americans and archeology in general, and many of his works were printed in Smithsonian publications. The University of Freiburg, Baden, conferred upon him the degree of Ph.D. in 1882. He was a member of the many archeological and anthropological societies of Europe and America. He bequeathed his library to the U.S. National Museum.

He died on July 25, 1887, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.