It was surveyed by the Falkland Islands Dependencies Survey in 1958, and named by the UK Antarctic Place-Names Committee for Nathaniel Bowditch, American astronomer and mathematician, author of The New American Practical Navigator (1801) which firmly set out the practical results of theories established at that date and has since gone through more than 56 editions.
Previously known as Bowditch (after its discoverer, Nathaniel Bowditch), this island was visited by the American ship Peacock which was part of the first American voyage of discovery – The United States Exploring Expedition (also known as "the Ex Ex" or "the Wilkes Expedition"), 1838–1842, United States Navy Lieutenant Charles Wilkes commanding.
Despite its extremely short life, it published papers by several notable mathematicians in the nascent American mathematical community, including Nathaniel Bowditch and Ferdinand Hassler; most importantly, Adrain himself published an independent formulation of the method of least squares.
Nathaniel Hawthorne | Nathaniel Lyon | Nathaniel P. Banks | Nathaniel Bowditch | Nathaniel Philbrick | Nathaniel Dance | Nathaniel Westlake | Nathaniel Rosen | Clare Bowditch | Nathaniel Wallich | Nathaniel Parker Willis | Nathaniel Lardner | Nathaniel Kahn | Nathaniel Peabody Rogers | Nathaniel L. Carpenter | Nathaniel Kern | Nathaniel Heckford | Nathaniel Greene | Nathaniel Bacon | Nathaniel W. Watkins | Nathaniel Wheeler | Nathaniel T. Oaks | Nathaniel Thayer | Nathaniel Stookey | Nathaniel P. Hill | Nathaniel Philip Rothschild | Nathaniel Morton | Nathaniel Merrill | Nathaniel Macon | Nathaniel Lord Britton |
After a short stay in New York, and then Philadelphia, he settled in Boston, where he produced busts of Washington Irving (1836) and Edward Livingston, and a large bronze of mathematician Nathaniel Bowditch for Mount Auburn Cemetery (1847).
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The National Portrait Gallery contains Ball Hughes' busts of Nathaniel Bowditch, Washington Irving, James Kent, John Marshall, and his medallion of John Trumbull.
Nathaniel Bowditch Blunt (ca. 1804, Newburyport, Essex County, Massachusetts – July 17, 1854, Lebanon Springs, Columbia County, New York) was an American lawyer and politician from New York.