Arthur H. Robinson - Biography

Biography

Arthur H. Robinson was born in Montreal, Quebec, Canada to American parents. He lived in Great Britain while he was young, and received his post-secondary education in the United States. His undergraduate work was done at Miami University in Oxford, Ohio, obtaining a B.A. degree in 1936. During his undergraduate work he became especially interested in cartography, and received some practice drawing maps for faculty textbooks while earning a master's degree in geography from the University of Wisconsin–Madison in 1938, and he earned his Ph.D. degree from the Ohio State University in 1947. While at Ohio State University, Robinson worked to solve problems in the Map communication model.

During World War II, Robinson served as director of the map division of the Office of Strategic Services (OSS). In 1941, when Robinson joined OSS, there were no cartographers as we know them today. Robinson engaged geographers with some interest in mapping and the group developed their techniques on the job. Robinson oversaw the creation of 5,000 hand-drawn maps and attended the Allied conferences at Quebec and Cairo in 1943 and 1944 as chief U.S. map officer. For his efforts Robinson received the Legion of Merit from the United States Army in 1946.

In 1947 Robinson subsequently joined the geography department at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, where he spent his career in academia and research. Robinson sought to establish cartography as a recognized discipline and ultimately the university granted both undergraduate and masters degrees in cartography. The Wisconsin cartography program has conferred more than 100 masters and 20 doctoral degrees, and many of the doctoral recipients created respected cartography programs at other universities. Today the map library at the University of Wisconsin–Madison is named in his honor.

Robinson served as president of the International Cartographic Association, and as vice president and president of the Association of American Geographers.