Donald W. Meinig

Donald William Meinig (November 1, 1924 – June 13, 2020) was an American geographer. He was Maxwell Research Professor Emeritus of Geography at the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs, Syracuse University.

Career Meinig studied foreign service at Georgetown University, and then earned graduate degrees in geography from the University of Washington in 1950 and 1953, under the supervision of Howard H. Martin; he was also strongly influenced by historian Carroll Quigley and Australian geographer Graham H. Lawton. and in 1960 he joined the Syracuse faculty.

Research Meinig's work focuses on historical geography, regional geography, cultural geography, social geography, and landscape interpretation. Even after relocating to Upstate New York, his historical geography work reflected western American interests, with pioneering regional studies on the Mormon culture area (1965), Texas (1969), and the Southwest (1971), as well as three chapters on New York State's historical geography in a volume edited by John Thompson (1966). Meinig dedicated 25 years of his academic career to this research, which offers a detailed overview of the country's geographic development from Columbus' arrival to the year 2000. He also concentrated on literary spaces and geography, stating, "Literature is a valuable storehouse of vivid depictions of the landscapes and lives of modern day society."

Thanks to a collaboration with his former doctoral student John Garver, some of Meinig's thematic regional maps named "The Making of America" were published by the National Geographic Society in the 1980s, reaching more than 10 million National Geographic subscribers. He was the first American geographer to be elected as a corresponding Fellow of the British Academy, in 1991. Meinig received an honorary doctorate (D.H.L.) from the Maxwell School at Syracuse University in 1994. In 2004, he received the John Brinckerhoff Jackson Prize for the best book interpreting the geography of America. The Geographical Review devoted a special issue to him in July 2009. In 2010, he was elected as a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

Personal life Meinig was born on November 1, 1924, in Palouse, Washington, and was raised on a farm. Meinig enlisted in the Army in May 1943 and served in the Corps of Engineers. In August 1944, he was promoted to 2nd Lieutenant and honorably discharged from active duty in February 1946.

Books His principal publications include: The Shaping of America: A Geographical Perspective on 500 Years of History, Volume 4: Global America, 1915-2000 (New Haven, Yale University Press, 2004). The Shaping of America: A Geographical Perspective on 500 Years of History, Volume 3: Transcontinental America, 1850-1915 (New Haven, Yale University Press, 1995). The Shaping of America: A Geographical Perspective on 500 Years of History, Volume 2, Continental America, 1800-1867 (New Haven, Yale University Press, 1992). The Shaping of America: A Geographical Perspective on 500 Years of History, Volume 1, Atlantic America, 1492-1800 (New Haven, Yale University Press, 1986). (Editor, with John Brinckerhoff Jackson) The Interpretation of Ordinary Landscapes (New York, Oxford University Press, 1979). Southwest: Three Peoples in Geographical Change 1600-1970 (New York, Oxford University Press, 1971). Imperial Texas, An Interpretative Essay in Cultural Geography (Austin, University of Texas Press, 1969). The Great Columbia Plain, A Historical Geography, 1805- 1910 (Seattle, University of Washington Press, 1968). On the Margins of the Good Earth: The South Australian Wheat Frontier, 1869–84 (London: John Murray, 1962) The Interpretation of Ordinary Landscapes (New York, Oxford University Press, 1979)