Robinson legacy

Arthur H. Robinson was born in Montreal, Canada, on January 5, 1915, to American parents. Robinson earned a bachelor's degree in history at Miami University in Oxford, Ohio, but also studied art and geography. He demonstrated an aptitude for cartography and began drawing maps for faculty textbooks while earning a master's degree in geography from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and a doctorate from Ohio State.

Recruited for the Office of Strategic Services in 1941, Robinson headed its map division throughout World War II, overseeing the drawing of about 5,000 maps for the military.

At war's end, he joined the University of Wisconsin-Madison faculty, where he taught at Science Hall until his retirement in 1980.

During his 35-year career at UW, he produced fifteen books and monographs, one of which, Elements of Cartography, went through six editions and became the preeminent textbook in cartography.

The Department of Geography Robinson Map Library is named in his honor.

Arthur H. Robinson is perhaps best known to the public as the creator of the Robinson Projection, a map projection that he referred to as "a portrait of the earth." In 1988 the National Geographic Society adopted that projection as its standard for producing world maps, followed by agencies of the U.S. Government and others worldwide. He served as president of the International Cartographic Association, and as vice president and president of the Association of American Geographers.

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• Listen to an NPR interview with Dr. Joel Morrison about Arthur H. Robinson and geography at Science Hall. (This is an .mp3 file, 38 Mb) >
• See more about the Robinson Projection >