McGill Libraries
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Identity area
Type of entity
Person
Authorized form of name
Johnson, A. J. (Alvin Jewett), 1827-1884
Parallel form(s) of name
Standardized form(s) of name according to other rules
Other form(s) of name
Identifiers for corporate bodies
Description area
Dates of existence
1827-1884
History
Alvin Jewett Johnson was born on September 23, 1827, in Wallingford, Rutland, Vermont.
He was a teacher, book agent, and publisher. After working on the family farm from an early age, he enrolled in the Black River Academy, supporting himself by working on farms in the summer and teaching lower school in winter. In 1849, he moved to Lunenburg Court House in southern Virginia, where he taught for three years. In 1853, he returned North and became the general agent for C.C. Colton’s Atlas in Boston. In 1857, Johnson moved to New York and the panic of 1857 brought him an opportunity to purchase the Atlas. He became the head of A.J. Johnson & Co. He reformed the system of subscription canvassing and reconstructed the Atlas, which became famous all over the United States as “Johnson’s Illustrated Atlas”. In 1860, Johnson published another competing atlas, “Johnson's New Illustrated (steel plate) Family Atlas, with Descriptions, Geographical, Statistical, and Historical” and in 1867, "Johnson's Canada West".
In 1851, he married Lucia Helena Warner (1828-1886). He died on April 22, 1884, in New York City, New York.