Marcus Benjamin was an American

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 editor, born at San Francisco, California

San Francisco, California

San Francisco , officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the financial, cultural, and transportation center of the San Francisco Bay Area, a region of 7.15 million people which includes San Jose and Oakland...

, and educated at the Columbia University School of Mines

Columbia University

Columbia University in the City of New York is a private, Ivy League university in Manhattan, New York City. Columbia is the oldest institution of higher learning in the state of New York, the fifth oldest in the United States, and one of the country's nine Colonial Colleges founded before the...

. After following his profession of chemist

Chemist

A chemist is a scientist trained in the study of chemistry. Chemists study the composition of matter and its properties such as density and acidity. Chemists carefully describe the properties they study in terms of quantities, with detail on the level of molecules and their component atoms...

 for several years, he turned to editorial work.

Dr. Benjamin worked on a number of reference works, as:

• Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography
• Standard Dictionary
• Universal Cyclopædia
• New International Encyclopædia
  New International Encyclopedia
  The New International Encyclopedia was an American encyclopedia first published in 1902 by Dodd, Mead and Company. It descended from the International Cyclopaedia and was updated in 1906, 1914 and 1926.-History:...
  
  
• Appleton's New Practical Cyclopædia, (six volumes, 1910).

From 1896, he was the editor of the publications of the United States National Museum

Smithsonian Institution

The Smithsonian Institution is an educational and research institute and associated museum complex, administered and funded by the government of the United States and by funds from its endowment, contributions, and profits from its retail operations, concessions, licensing activities, and magazines...

. He was an aide in the office of Naval Intelligence during World War I

World War I

World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...

, and received a decoration by France

France

The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...

. He was a fellow of the Chemical Society

Chemical Society

The Chemical Society was formed in 1841 as a result of increased interest in scientific matters....

.