Walter Harvey Weed (1862-1944) graduated in mining engineering from Columbia University in 1883 and worked for the USGS. He became the foremost expert on US copper mining. Weed was a geologist with the North Carolina Geological Survey (1901-1906) , a consulting ore deposit geologist, and editor and publisher of the Cooper Handbook (1914-1915) and the Mines Handbook (1916-1925). He was a founder of the Geological Society of Washington D.C..