A Tribute to Donald Meinig

Abstract

Donald Meinig's probing mind, clear prose, and sweeping geographical perspective have enlivened American historical and cultural geography for more than fifty years. His contributions to the discipline span many scales: His ideas on the evolution and meaning of landscape have enriched our regional appreciation for localities across North America; his geopolitical assessments of colonization, imperialism, and globalization still resonate today; and his continental-scale analysis of more than 500 years of North American historical geography marks a piece of scholarship and illustrates a point of view that has in fundamental ways influenced ideas both within and beyond the bounds of academic geography. As two of Don's former doctoral students, we are delighted to offer this special issue of the Geographical Review in recognition of Don's impact on the field. The contributors, including other former students, friends, and kindred geographical spirits, reflect both Don's depth and breadth, his insatiable curiosity about the world, and his fascination with the links between geography, history, culture, and landscape. LIFE OF LEARNING--THE MAKING OF A GEOGRAPHER Don was born in 1924 and raised in the Palouse country of eastern Washington State. Indeed, a splendid autobiographical account of his life, entitled A Life of Learning, was published in 1992 as part of the Charles Homer Haskins Lecture Series at the University of Chicago. In that account Don recalls his early fascination with maps, railroads, and the unfolding global events of the 1930s. Those years revealed his geographical bent and prefigured a post-World War II decision to enroll in Georgetown University's School of Foreign Service. Nourished by some fine professors--including Carroll Quigley and Ernst Feilchenfeld--but chastened by Washington, D.C.'s stifling political environment, Don decided to return west after Georgetown and enter graduate school in geography at the University of Washington. The Australian geographer Graham Lawton proved pivotal in guiding Don's graduate work in geography. With Lawton's encouragement, Don turned toward a reconnaissance of his own backyard. The product was a dissertation on the historical geography of the interior Pacific Northwest that resulted in the publication of The Great Columbia Plain (1968). Don's long academic career began in 1950 with a position in a small geography department at the University of Utah. While along the Wasatch Front, Don and his wife, Lee, raised a family, and Don settled into a busy new career of teaching and research that even included a pioneering foray into television as the host of a locally broadcast lecture series in geography. In 1958 a Fulbright award took Don to the University of Adelaide, where he completed research on the historical geography of the South Australian wheat frontier. On the Margins of the Good Earth was published four years later. New opportunities at Syracuse University prompted Don and his family to make the permanent move east in 1959. Settling into upstate New York, Don's work in historical geography continued to reflect western American interests, including pathbreaking regional studies on the Mormon culture region (1965), Texas (1969), and the Southwest (1971b), as well as three chapters on New York State's historical geography in a volume edited by John Thompson (Meinig 1966a, 1966b, 1966c). Don took the helm as chair of the Geography Department between 1968 and 1973 and assumed an active role in shaping the university's Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs (becoming a Maxwell Professor of Geography in 1973). He also served as chair for more than twenty doctoral students during the Syracuse years, while teaching an array of popular graduate and undergraduate courses. Don's pen was particularly productive between 1976 and 2004. He authored more than two dozen research articles and book chapters, served as editor for the enduring The Interpretation of Ordinary Landscapes (1979), a rich collection of essays that became a classic in the field, and completed his sweeping four-volume interpretation of historical geography entitled The Shaping of America: A Geographical Perspective on 500 Years of History (1986, 1993, 1998, 2004). …