Memorial Gathering and Career Celebration
for Arthur H. Robinson and David A. Woodward Held November 19, 2004

The University of Wisconsin-Madison Department of Geography hosted a memorial gathering and career celebration on November 19, 2004 in the Arthur H. Robinson Map Library in Science Hall to honor the lifetime contributions of geographers Arthur H. Robinson and David A. Woodward. (In photo from left: Patricia Robinson looks on as Rosalind Woodward and Martha Robinson greet each other on November 19 at Science Hall.)

• See a Geography Department photograph album from the event here.
• 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)
• Read the New York Times article praising David A. Woodward.
• Read an LA Times article on Robinson.
• View the UK Telegraph obituary for Woodward.

Robinson, a world-renowned geographer and emeritus professor at UW, passed away in Madison on October 10, 2004. Woodward passed away on August 25, 2004 after a successful geography career at UW which culminated in the publication of a foundational series on "The History of Cartography".

Gary Sandefur, Dean of the UW-Madison College of Letters and Science, and Dr. Joel Morrison, former director of the Center For Mapping at Ohio State University spoke at the gathering.

In the week prior to the Robinson-Woodward gathering, National Geography Awareness Week, the department hosted the 2004 GIS Day and Expo, Geography Library at Science Hall celebrated its 75th anniversary, and Dr. John R. Hebert, Chief of the Geography and Map Division in the Library of Congress presented his work on "Mapping the Louisiana Purchase" as a part of the Yi-Fu Tuan Lecture Series.

ROBINSON BACKGROUND:   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. 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. He served as president of the International Cartographic Association, and as vice president and president of the Association of American Geographers.

WOODWARD BACKGROUND:   David A. Woodward was the Arthur H. Robinson emeritus professor of geography at UW-Madison where he, as editor and historian of mapmaking in an ambitious multi-volume series of books The History of Cartography, re-examined the place of mapmaking in world history. Woodward graduated from the University of Wales Swansea and received a doctorate in geography from the University of Wisconsin in 1970. He joined the Newberry Library in 1969 and was director of the Center for the History of Cartography there from 1974 to 1980. During his career at UW of over 20 years, Woodward was also a co-director of the Cultural Map of Wisconsin project at UW-Madison.

Posted 29 October 2004, revised 30 November 2004 by Melanie McCalmont