he was educated at whitesboro, new york, became a teacher at whitesborough and binghamton, and was for twelve years principal of the stone school in hartford, connecticut, resigning in 1831. in 1828, he brought out "a geography and atlas", which was at once accepted as a standard work, and for thirty years was used in almost every public and private school of the united states. it was many times enlarged and revised, and ran through 98 editions, some of the editions numbering 80,000 copies. millions of copies were sold, and the popularity of olney's "geography" was surpassed only by that of webster's "american spelling book".