Kiepert, Johann Samuel Heinrich (1818-1899)

German geographer. His first work, in conjunction with Karl Ritter, Atlas von Hellas und den hellenischen Kolonien/Atlas of Greece and the Greek colonies (1840-46), established his reputation as a historical cartographer. His other works include Historisch-geographischer Atlas der alten Welt/A historical-geographical Atlas of the Ancient World (1848), the famous Atlas antiquus (1854), Lehrbuch der alten Geographie/Manual of Ancient Geography (1877-78), and Leitfaden der alten Geographie/Clues to Ancient Geography (1879; English translation 1881).

He was born in Berlin and educated at the university there. In 1859 he was appointed professor of geography at Berlin, one of the first chairs in the subject. He later travelled in the eastern Mediterranean and East Asia. From 1874 Kiepert was occupied in completing Baron von Richthofen's atlas of China. He also prepared maps from the information given by Heinrich Barth and other German travellers. From 1875 to 1887 he was editor of the geographical magazine Globus.

His son Richard Kiepert (1846-1915), educated at Jena University, was also a noted cartographer, his chief individual work being his Spezialkarte von Kleinasien/A Specialist Map of Asia Minor.