Men of the Age

I found this piece of Newspaper inside a book I own today. Its cover serves as background in this image. The full title of the book is:

"The Volume of the World: Embracing the Geography, History and Statistics, of the Nations of the Earth:
with complete Statistical Tables from the latest authentic sources and one hundred illustrations
of works of art and nature, views of cities, public buildings,
important localities, prominent objects in natural history and delineations of civilized and savage life;
also embellished with a Map of the World, on Mercator's Projection with its detail brought down to the latest date of Geographical Discovery,
and delineating the Principal Voyages since the time of Columbus."

The book was published in 1852 and as far as I can tell read very little. My guess is that the newspaper clipping dates from the 1850's as well.

A Challenge for you: The first one to be able to tell me who "Fitch Whitney" refers to gets a special prize from me!