Richard Edes Harrison (March 11, 1901 – January 5, 1994) was an American

scientific illustrator Technical Illustration is illustration meant to visually communicate information of a technical nature. Technical illustrations can be components of technical drawings or diagrams. Technical illustrations in general aim "to generate expressive i ...

and cartographer. He was the house cartographer of '' Fortune'' and a consultant at ''Life'' for almost two decades. He played a key role in "challenging cartographic perspectives and attempting to change spatial thinking on the everyday level during America’s rise to

superpower A superpower is a state with a dominant position characterized by its extensive ability to exert influence or project power on a global scale. This is done through the combined means of economic, military, technological, political and cultural ...

status".

Susan Schulten Susan Schulten is an American historian, and professor at the University of Denver. She graduated from the University of California, Berkeley with a B.A., and from the University of Pennsylvania The University of Pennsylvania (also know ...

considers Harrison's maps "critical to the history of American cartography."

Biography

Richard Edes Harrison's father was the biologist Ross Granville Harrison. He was born in

Baltimore Baltimore ( , locally: or ) is the List of municipalities in Maryland, most populous city in the U.S. state of Maryland, fourth most populous city in the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic, and List of United States cities by popula ...

Maryland Maryland ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. It shares borders with Virginia, West Virginia, and the District of Columbia to its south and west; Pennsylvania to its north; ...

in 1901. He spent his youth in New Haven and went to Yale College where he graduated with a major in

zoology Zoology ()The pronunciation of zoology as is usually regarded as nonstandard, though it is not uncommon. is the branch of biology that studies the animal kingdom, including the structure, embryology, evolution, classification, habits, and ...

and a minor in chemistry. He worked for a time as a draftsman, working for the architect Cass Gilbert and decided to become an architect himself. To this effect, he went to the Yale School of Fine Arts in 1926 and spent four years there. Yet, in 1930, during the Great Depression, employment prospects for architects were not good so he made a living by working as a designer. Harrison came to cartography "by chance" in 1932 when a friend asked him to momentarily replace a mapmaker working for ''Fortune''. During

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

, his cartographic visualizations became very popular. In his maps and atlases, Harrison argued for examining geographic issues from multiple perspectives and breaking from conventions, such as overuse of the

Mercator projection The Mercator projection () is a cylindrical map projection presented by Flemish geographer and cartographer Gerardus Mercator in 1569. It became the standard map projection for navigation because it is unique in representing north as up and so ...

, and always placing north at the top of the map. His World representation using an

azimuthal projection In cartography, map projection is the term used to describe a broad set of transformations employed to represent the two-dimensional curved surface of a globe on a plane. In a map projection, coordinates, often expressed as latitude and lo ...

that was first published by ''Fortune'' in August 1941 under the title "''The World Divided''" became highly popular and was widely copied. He wanted to illustrate that "the entire conflict pivots around the U.S". A latter version entitled "''One World, One War''" was published on ''Fortune'' in March 1942. The US Army ordered 18000 copies of it. It displayed United States as a pivotal element of the World War, displaying how close it was to

Nazi Germany Nazi Germany (lit. "National Socialist State"), ' (lit. "Nazi State") for short; also ' (lit. "National Socialist Germany") (officially known as the German Reich from 1933 until 1943, and the Greater German Reich from 1943 to 1945) was ...

occupied territories. During the war, Harrison also contributed to the Office War Information's ''War Atlas for Americans''. The design of the United Nations logo was influenced by his azimuthal projection. His distinctive feature of the time was the usage of tilted perspective. Harrison always considered himself more of an artist than a cartographer, but he had a highly successful career making maps for ''Fortune'' and ''

Time Time is the continued sequence of existence and events that occurs in an apparently irreversible succession from the past, through the present, into the future. It is a component quantity of various measurements used to sequence events, t ...

''. He was from 1936 to 1938 on the staff of ''Fortune''. He worked from the 1940s to the 1950s as a map consultant at the State Department, and was also employed by the Office of Strategic Services, the precursor of the CIA and the

Museum of Modern Art The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) is an art museum located in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, on 53rd Street (Manhattan), 53rd Street between Fifth Avenue, Fifth and Sixth Avenues. It plays a major role in developing and collecting modern art, ...

. He lectured at

Clark Clark is an English language surname, ultimately derived from the Latin with historical links to England, Scotland, and Ireland ''clericus'' meaning "scribe", "secretary" or a scholar within a religious order, referring to someone who was educat ...

, Syracuse,

Columbia Columbia may refer to: * Columbia (personification), the historical female national personification of the United States, and a poetic name for America Places North America Natural features * Columbia Plateau, a geologic and geographic region in ...

and

Trinity The Christian doctrine of the Trinity (, from 'threefold') is the central dogma concerning the nature of God in most Christian churches, which defines one God existing in three coequal, coeternal, consubstantial divine persons: God the ...

Universities. He was a member of the American Geographical Society and the Royal Geographical Society. Harrison produced several maps to illustrate Nicholas Spykman's ''America's Strategy in World Politics,'' a foundational work of 20th century geopolitics.

Publications

* *Harrison, Richard Edes (1945). ''Maps and How to Understand Them''. New York: Consolidated Vultee Aircraft Corporation. *Harrison, Richard Edes (1963). ''The Ginn World Atlas''. Boston: Ginn and Company *Dickinson, Robert L. and Harrison, RIchard Edes (1971). ''New York Walk Book''. Garden City, NJ: Doubleday.

Links

Richard Edes Harrison maps and papers collection at the Library of Congress.

Cornell University Library, digital collections : works by Richard Edes HarrisonGallery of Richard Edes Harrison maps at the David Rumsey Map Collection

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Harrison, Richard Edes People from Baltimore 1901 births 1994 deaths American cartographers Yale College alumni 20th-century cartographers