Stephen Bishop (cave explorer)

Stephen Bishop (c. 1821 – 1857) was an American cave explorer and self-taught geologist known for being one of the first people to explore and map Mammoth Cave in the U.S. state of Kentucky. Mammoth Cave has been recognized as the longest cave system in the world since 1972. Bishop's map of the cave, hand-drawn from memory off-site in 1842, was included in a book published in 1844 and was regarded as the authoritative map of the cave system for over four decades. Bishop was enslaved and worked as a guide at Mammoth for approximately 19 years. He was freed by manumission the year before his death.