The Spatial Evolution of Academic Geography in the United States

Abstract

Abstract Geography became established as a separate discipline in American higher education institutions in the late nineteenth century. The Midwest served as the hearth area from which the discipline diffused outward. The number of new departments grew steadily until the 1960s, when a dramatic increase in the number of establishments took place. Since the 1970s, geography has gone through a period of retrenchment, with the number of new departments decreasing and department closings increasing. Representation of these changes through cartographic techniques clearly depict the establishment, expansion and contractions of geography departments at the college and university level beginning in the late 1800s and concluding with the present decade.