Many elements of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and its commissioned officer service, the NOAA Corps, are direct descendants of the U. S. Coast and Geodetic Survey (USC&GS), the oldest scientific agency in the U.S. Federal Government. NOAA and the NOAA Corps can trace their lineage to 1807 when President Thomas Jefferson, among the most scientific of our Presidents, signed a bill for the "Survey of the Coast."

The first Superintendent of the Coast Survey was Ferdinand Rudolph Hassler, a Swiss immigrant whose scientific skill, strength of character, and indomitable nature guided this first science agency through many difficult times until his death in 1843. Hassler left a thriving organization imbued with principles of accuracy, scientific standards, and integrity as his gift to the American people.

During the period before the Civil War, the work force of the Survey was made up of a nucleus of civilians working hand-in-hand with Army and Naval officers. These men and women (the Coast Survey was the first Federal agency to hire female professionals) worked at charting the nation's waterways, producing topographic maps of our shorelines, and conducting the triangulation that was the backbone of all precise mapping efforts. Their efforts made our marine highways among the best charted in the world. Many outstanding military and Naval officers served with the Survey during these years, including Andrew Humphreys, Edwin O.C. Ord, Isaac Ingalls Stevens, Joseph Johnston, Ambrose P. Hill, David Dixon Porter, Charles H. Davis, James Alden, Samuel P. Lee, and John Maffitt.