Born in Scotland, American William Maclure (1763–1840) was a member of a commission set up to settle claims between the United States and France from 1803 through 1807. In 1809 he made a geographical chart of the United States in which the land areas were divided by rock types. In 1817 he revised and enlarged this map. Maclure wrote the first English language articles and books on U.S. geology.