YALE •¦ 'in
OCT 14 I9ft
LIBRA
PUBLICATIONS
OF1 THE
Clark University Library
WORCESTER, MASS.
Edited by LOT7IS N. WILSON, Litt. D., Librarian
Vol. 6 OCTOBER, 1922. No. 6

A Graduate School
of
Geography By
William M. Davis, ScD., Ph.D.

Commencement Address
at
Clark University, June 12, 1922

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WarttBttv. UJaaa.

A Graduate School
of
Geography By
William M. Davis, ScD., Ph.D.

Commencement Address
at
Clark University, June 12, 1922

Gllark IniBprsttg Eibrarg
WarttBttt, Mass.

FOREWORD
During the last few years, there has been a remarkable
awakening in America of a keen and sympathetic interest in
the affairs of the world.
This interest calls for a greater knowledge of foreign lands,
of the various peoples inhabiting the world, of the natural
resources, of the climatic conditions, and the influence of dif
ferent climates upon the several races of men. In other words,
it means that we demand a fuller and more accurate
knowledge of geography.
With this awakening in America of a greater interest in
geography, it seemed to be most appropriate that this country
should hear from the dean of American geographers as to
what his ideal would be for the promotion of this field of
study in American universities. The accompanying address
was delivered to an audience of about twelve hundred people ;
but it is our desire that it may be read by a much larger num
ber, that it may reach all those who are especially interested
in this field of study and that they may retain these words
from Professor Davis in their private libraries. For this
reason we have arranged for the publication and distribution
of this address. We feel certain it will inspire all in the geo
graphical profession to higher ideals and greater activity,
and we also trust that it may convince many with
administrative responsibility of the greater significance of
geographical research and education in this country.
Wallace W. Atwood.

A Graduate School of Geography
By William M. Davis, ScD., Ph.D.

A CASTLE IN THE AIR
In spite of a wide-spread prejudice against building castles
in the air, I propose this afternoon to consider a construction
of that kind ; for if castles are not to be built in the air, where
in the world are they to be built : surely not underground or
in the water! All the castles I have ever seen were built in
the air; their foundations were in the ground, of course, but
the castles themselves were in the air. My proposal therefore
needs no defence.
In view of the good number of castles already built, some
of them very high in the air, even on mountain tops, for occu
pation by the defendants of various sciences, it is gratifying
to learn that plans are advancing for the erection here in
Worcester of a castle of the particular kind in which my own
interest is most excited, a geographical castle. But it is, on
the other hand, regrettable to find that the proposal to erect
a castle, a stronghold, dedicated to geography alone seems,
even in intellectual circles, to need explanation if not justi
fication; so little is the vast and varied content of geography
understood, so imperfectly is the great opportunity for orig
inal research in geography appreciated, so halting is the
recognition of the importance that the results of such research
will have in the conservation and consecration of the wide
spaces of the earth to the better advantage of mankind. Let
us try to rise to a realization of the geographical opportunity
Before us. THE EPOCH OP GEOGRAPHICAL DESCRIPTION
We must remember that the geographical epoch, in which
.the first discovery of the general outline of the lands and
waters over the w,orld was made, is now closed. The work
that remains for the coming geographical epoch is not the
discovery but the description of the earth's features; and
their description can be properly prepared only by pro-

2 WILLIAM M. DAVIS
fessional geographers, unlike in disposition and training to
the bold pathfinders who made the first entry into remote
and unknown regions. Moreover, the labor involved in the
future preparation of such descriptions will be enormously
greater than that already expended in the epoch of discovery.
I fear that few persons have any idea of how much geographi
cal work remains to be done or of the amount of labor
demanded in doing it. Let me tell you that even most of our
own states, for example, Tennessee or Montana, familiar by
name to all of us and well known locally in an empirical way
to many of their inhabitants, have not yet been described with
professional thoroughness. There are absolutely no treatises,
not even handbooks in which the regional geography of. most
of our states is set forth in a thoroughly competent and com
prehensive manner. How vastly ignorant then must we be
of South America, Africa and Asia! The geography of the
world is really yet to be written, and in preparation for that
writing the world must be explored all over again, not by
mere travelers, but by geographical experts. In order to
carry on the re-exploration of the world and give adequate
opportunity for the preparation of the many scholarly vol
umes in which a competent description of the re-explored
world shall be contained, many institutions in all parts of
the world must cooperate; and one of those institutions
should be the geographical stronghold which we hope to see
erected here.
THE ESSENTIAL OBJECTS OF A GEOGRAPHICAL STRONGHOLD ¦
What is the essential object of such a stronghold? In the
first place, the object of a geographical stronghold may be
most advantageously reached if it is built up over a well
planned lower story in which introductory collegiate instruc
tion shall be offered in geography and other undergraduate
subjects; but in the stronghold itself the object should be
primarily geographical research and only secondarily geo
graphical teaching. Let me at once make clear and insist upon
this main reason for the construction of a geographical
stronghold. It should not be planned primarily to provide
either introductory or utilitarian instruction, although such
instruction should not be altogether excluded from it. The

A GRADUATE SCHOOL OF GEOGRAPHY 3
main reason for the construction and maintenance of the
stronghold should be to add geographical contributions to the
sum of. human knowledge, without regard to what is called
their practical value. Immediate usefulness, direct applica
tion of the knowledge gained should not be made a prime
requisite in an institution of research; and particularly not
in a geographical stronghold, because the higher branches of
geography are as yet so little developed. The essential tasks
of a gographical stronghold will therefore not be the impart
ing of geographical knowledge so that it may be imparted
again elsewhere as in teaching; or so that it may be applied
elsewhere as in geographical engineering — I will explain
later what geographical engineering is. If the work be
mainly of that utilitarian nature, the stronghold will be, from
the point of view which I wish to insist upon, largely a failure.
The first duty of a geographical stronghold — or, to use its
proper name, of a Graduate School of Geography — must be
geographical research; and until such research has advanced
well beyond its present limits the acquisition and not the dis
semination of geographical knowledge must be the main object
in view: the dissemination of the acquired knowledge will
follow as a secondary duty. It may be well urged for many
years to come that, even in the case of graduate students, the
best way to prepare them for the higher reaches of geographi
cal science will not be to impart to them the geographical
knowledge already gained; teaching of that kind is properly
the task of a college. The correspondingly proper task of a
professional graduate school is the cultivation of proficiency
in the pursuit of new knowledge; and such proficiency is best
acquired not by direct instruction in formal lecture courses,
but by placing those who wish to acquire it in close association
with others who, already proficient, are using their proficiency
in research.
RESEARCH THE BEST PREPARATION FOR HIGH-GRADE PRACTICAL,
WORK
Geography is not peculiar in that respect. I have it on good
authority that even in chemistry, a science of enormous prac
tical importance, the best training for a chemical engineer is,

4 WILLIAM M. DAVIS
not alone the study of those chemical processes which are
already known to have practical value, but the investigation
of new processes without regard to their application ; and this
for the good reason that the essential thing for the really pro
ficient chemical engineer is not simply to know this or that
treatment of a problem which has already been solved, but to
know how best to attack and solve new problems. Knowledge
of that sort comes best by attacking and trying to solve new
problems, under the guidance of experts who are themselves
chiefly engaged in solving new problems. So with the devel
opment of a really proficient geographer. It will not be
enough to teach him a certain share of what is already known
about geography ; he must also learn how to find out more than
is already known ; and the very best way for him to do that is
to spend a few years in an institution primarily devoted to
geographical research.
A STAFF OF NINE PROFESSORS OF GEOGRAPHY
Of what should such an institution consist? I have thus
far described it as a castle, a stronghold; but I hardly need
say that the most important elements of such a stronghold
are not walls but men; geographers. They must of course
have rooms to work in ; and I hope that the Graduate School
of Geography in Clark University will eventually occupy
a large building, planned for and devoted to research; but
the essential thing is the men. A strong staff of full pro
fessorial rank will be needed. There should be at least one
professor for each grand division or continent, hence five in
all ; it would be much better to have two for each of the less
known continents, South America, Africa and Asia, or eight
professors in all ; and another should be added for Australasia,
Polynesia and the oceans, thus making nine in all. Those nine
geographers, or five if nine cannot be secured, would consti
tute the central and permanent staff of the institution. There
should be a good number of others temporarily or periph
erally attached, as I will explain later: and all of these
should be in addition to and independent of the geographical
staff for undergraduate instruction in the college.

A GRADUATE SCHOOL OF GEOGRAPHY 5
If you suggest that one or two geographers for a continent
is a lavish provision, I must insist that it is a small provision.
For each geographer must be responsible for the regional
description of a large area, and that means that he must know
the form of its surface, its climate, its more important vegeta
ble and animal occupants, its human inhabitants, its political
subdivisions, its products and industries, and its transporta
tion and trade. And all these subjects must be known, not
as made up of isolated items unrelated to each other, but as
correlated items all in their natural and interdependent juxta
position, thus constituting the landscapes and manifesting the
activities of the region. To know so much as that about a
continent is no small responsibility. But in addition to this
continental responsibility in regional geography, each member
of the staff should be a specialist in the subject of one of the
eight larger systematic divisions of geography — land and
water forms, climate, plant geography, animal geography,
human geography, economic geography, historical geography,
and history of geography. The difference between the regional
and the systematic aspects of geography is this: In each
division or special subject of systematic geography such as
land and water forms, climate, and the rest, all the classes
of facts treated under that subject should be studied in what
ever part of the world their examples are found ; while in each
large division of regional geography, such as North America
or Africa, all kinds of facts to whatever special subject of
sytematic geography they belong must be studied in their
natural associations. Surely when the work to be done in a
geographical stronghold is thus envisaged a permanent staff
of nine men will not seem too large.
REGIONAL GEOGRAPHY THE CULMINATION OF GEOGRAPHICAL
SCIENCE
Let me make it clear why I lay so much emphasis on regional
geography, in contrast to systematic geography. However
important the different divisions of systematic geography are,
they yield only a discontinuous sort of knowledge. Under
land forms we may study about volcanoes, and learn as much
as possible about all of them, wherever they are ; but the items

6 WILLIAM M. DAVIS
of knowledge that we thus gain compel us to leap about all
over the world in order to locate them. Similarly, we may
learn under human geography all about fishing villages, wher
ever situated; but there again we must leap about to locate
the items that we learn. On the other hand the study of
regional geography gives us a continuous or areal sort of
knowledge; if we study the regional geography of Japan, for
example, we shall learn not only the distribution of its many
volcanoes and of its many fishing villages, but of all its other
geographical features; and it is this continuous or areal
knowledge that is usually and properly implied when we speak
of geography in a general way. The study of the various
divisions of systematic geography has, indeed, its chief value
as a preparation for the study of regional geography ; hence
no one should consider himself a geographer, until he has
become expert in the regional geography of at least one large
area, preferably as large as a continent. Moreover, not until
such expertness is gained is a geographer's knowledge likely to
be of practcal application in such a profession as geographi
cal engineering. A thorough representation of regional geog
raphy is therefore essential in a well developed Graduate
School of Geography. RESEARCH BY EXPLORATION
How will these nine geographers do their work? First
and foremost, each one of them will be expected to take part
from time to time in the actual exploration of the continent
for which he is responsible, or in the investigation of his
special subject in systematic geography ; and between times he
must make himself acquainted with the work of other explor
ers of his continent, and of other investigators in his special
systematic subject. His own exploratory work, in which he
should be accompanied by one or more advanced students, will
require absence from Worcester for periods of half a year or
a year every three, four or five years ; and the digestion and
publication of the results of his exploration will require, after
he returns home, at least twice as much time as he spent in
the field. The rest of his time at home should be given to the
study of explorations and investigations by others, so that each

A GRADUATE SCHOOL OF GEOGRAPHY 7
one of the nine professors shall become a recognized center of
absorption and radiation of regional and special knowledge.
On this plan, two professors would ordinarily be absent every
year; three or four others would be engrossed in preparing
for publication the material they secured in the field during
their absence one or two years before ; and each of the remain
ing three or four professors would be very busy in reviewing
and assimilating the work of other geographers in various
parts of the world, as far as it referred to matters for which he
is responsible. If, under these conditions, any professor finds
that he has some free time left over, he might give it to the
preparation and delivery of set courses of lectures.
CURATORS AND MATERIAL EQUIPMENT
You may have noticed, that, apart from the staff of nine pro
fessors, nothing has yet been said about the rest of the School's
establishment. While I still maintain that the essential
feature of the School must be its corps of research professors,
there are also other features of equipment which the professors
will say are essential, even if I do not.
There must be in the first place a comprehensive library of
geography and allied subjects in charge of a scholarly libra
rian ; not simply a man who will put books back in their places
on the shelves, but a man well versed in geographical litera
ture, an active collaborator with the professors in keeping the
library up to date in all its departments, and perhaps having
so great an interest in geographical production as to serve
as editor of the School's publications. There must be, in the
second place, a complete collection of modern, large-scale
topograpical and hydrographical maps of all countries which
publish such maps, and this collection should be in charge of
a cartographer; not a mere draftsman, but an experienced
craftsman with a real understanding of the outdoor things
that maps represent and a dextrous hand for the construction
of such new maps as are needed in the School work ; instruc
tion in so much of surveying and map making as young geog
raphers need might be given by this member of the staff.
In the third place there should be a large and growing collec
tion of models, in charge of a trained and skilful model-maker ;

8 WILLIAM M. DAVIS
not a mere artificer but a geographer of artistic capacity and
outdoor experience, competent to design and construct truth
fully expressive models himself. There should be, in the
fourth place, an extensive and ever-growing collection of geo
graphical photographs, not in charge of a mere photographer,
but of a geographer competent to make scientific selection of
characteristic views for the illustration of geographical sub
jects and regions. And in the fifth place there should be a
comprehensive collection of the products of all countries in
charge of an experienced economic geographer, unless the
School proposes to depend for such material on the great
Commercial Museum in Philadelphia. The material equip
ment of a graduate school of geography is therefore a some
what formidable matter. It must be vigorously looked after.
A CENTRAL BUREAU FOR GEOGRAPHICAL ILLUSTRATIONS
Let me say a few words more about the collections of geo
graphical photographs and models, in order to explain the
manner in which such collections may be made useful not
only in Clark University, but all over the country wherever
geography has recognition. Every college where geography is
taught needs a collection of lantern slides for the illustration
of its lectures. At present each professor of geography in
all those colleges has to build up his own collection as best he
can; as a result such collections are very uneven and imper
fect. There is no central bureau where well selected sets of
lantern slides for the illustration of special subjects or of
special regions can be obtained. What a boon it would be for
professors of geography in every part of the United States if
the Graduate School of Geography at Clark University would
undertake to form a standard collection of photographs and
lantern slides; not a finished collection, but a constantly
growing collection, from which one could order, for example,
an elementary set of 10 slides or an advanced set of 50 slides
for the illustration of the physical geography of coasts ; or an
elementary set of 15 slides or an advanced set of 100 slides for
the illustration of the regional geography of Colorado. A
great amount of correspondence and travel, of reading and
study would be required before such a collection was well

A GRADUATE SCHOOL OF GEOGRAPHY 9
developed : but when it came to be known that the sets made
up from the collection were composed of pictures critically
selected by a competent geographer, so that they would really
accomplish their purpose, all geographical eyes would be often
turned to Clark. A SERIES OF GEOGRAPHICAL MODELS
A similarly beneficent work could be done by establishing a
standard collection of geographical models, from which dupli
cates could ,be had at the cost of casting and coloring, without
charge for the making. Like the lantern slides, these might
illustrate both systematic and regional subjects. Thus, there
might be a set of five models to exhibit the successive changes
of a volcanic mountain from its youth of eruptive construc
tion to its old age of erosional degradation, and so on for other
physical features. Similarly there might be models represent
ing certain striking features of different countries: these, on
account of their expense, would be less often sold to colleges
than to museums where they would attract much attention;
but the systematic series would surely become popular as well
as serviceable in the geographical laboratories of colleges; for
such models may serve not only in illustration of type forms,
but also as the basis for very disciplinary exercises in land
scape description, a phase of geographical instruction which is
too generally neglected. Such instruction may be advisedly
begun in field excursions, where it can be grounded on the
direct observation of nature ; but the variety of landscape on
which advantageous exercise may be had will be greatly ex
tended if field excursions are supplemented by models. But
I must turn away from this attractive topic, and consider
again the Graduate School itself.
AN ENCOURAGING ANALOGY FROM ASTRONOMY
If we now return to consider the work of the research
professors, perhaps you will ask: Is it really worth while to
study the world in so much detail as has been thus far implied.
Let me answer that question by a celestial analogy. The
astronomical observatory maintained on Mt. Wilson in south
ern California by the Carnegie Institution of Washington —

10 WILLIAM M. DAVIS
this being a shining example of one of those lofty mountain-
top castles already alluded to — has a corps of high-grade
astronomers devoting all their time and abilities to the study
of the sun and the stars. They have nothing whatever to do
with teaching. They never stop to ask whether their discov
eries will have practical application or not. But first inform
ing themselves thoroughly in all branches of astronomy, as
well as in the allied sciences of mathematics and physics,
they perseveringly catalogue and chart the stars, large and
small, as so many facts of occurrence; they measure their
brightness with the photometer and they analyze their compo
sition with the spectroscope ; and, marvellous to say, by com
bining spectrum and brightness they determine the distance
of stars that are so immensely far away that they have no
measurable parallax ! They give the most ingenious and pene
trating study to the distribution and movement of stars in
space. They determine with great accuracy the periods of
revolution of what are known as spectroscopic doubles, the
two components of which cannot be separated even by the
most powerful telescopes. Can you conceive of anything more
utterly useless? And yet the world applauds their work.
The spirit of devotion to research which characterizes the
staff of an astronomical observatory is the spirit which should
dominate and guide the staff of a Graduate School of Geog
raphy. For if it be praiseworthy to spend years, without the
least regard to what is vainly called " utility," on the con
struction of catalogues and classifications of stars, most of
which are invisible to the naked eye and inconceivably distant
from our solar system, shall it not be praiseworthy also to
spend years in the study of every geographical feature in
every part of the world, without the least regard to whether the
study leads to utility or not ? The facts of one science are of the
heavens, heavenly ; those of the other are of the earth, earthy.
But who shall say that a ninth magnitude star in such and
such a part of the sky is a more worthy object of study than a
ridge or a ravine in such and such a part of the earth? The
star may be very large, but it is far away ; the ridge or the ra
vine may be very small, but it is near at hand. The study of the
earth, our own earth, is surely deserving of all the time and

A GRADUATE SCHOOL OF GEOGRAPHY 11
skill we can give to it. And even if, among various other
geographical strongholds, the one here to be established eventu
ally gains its quota of nine professors of geography, there will
be abundant work for them all to do for years and years to
come. Indeed, it is highly probable that, what with the ever
growing demands of science, the scope of the work to be done
in geography will be expanded about as fast as the advance
of the work goes on.
THE STANDARDIZATION OF GEOGRAPHY
But even as geography is now conceived, do not imagine
that the staff of nine professors will find their progress to be
all clear sailing, as if their course were already charted and
their duties specified. That is by no means the case. One of
the most important parts of their work will be its standardiza
tion, both as to content and as to method, concerning which
many problematic matters, now unsolved or imperfectly solved,
must be carried to a conclusion. Let us examine first those
touching the content of geography.
How shall the description of land forms be treated so as to
distinguish that special division of geography from its relative
in geology? How much physical meteorology shall be in-
eluded in climatology ? What facts concerning the plants and
animals of a region shall be treated in a truly geographical essay,
so that it shall not duplicate sections of botanical and geological
essays? How shall the essential factors of economic and of
historical geography be treated so that they shall have a qual
ity of their own, and not be merely selections from economics
and history? All these questions must be examined and
answered before the geographer can assure himself that all
phases of geography, systematic as well as regional, are not
merely restatements of parts of other subjects. He must see
to it that all his own statements are essentially geographical,
and of a kind that other subjects do not duplicate. Not that
the establishment of sharp limits between the contents of
neighboring sciences is desirable, nor that trespassing upon a
neighboring science is in itself undesirable; but that when
a geographer has so serious a responsibility placed upon him
as the regional description of a large area of the earth's sur-

12 WILLIAM M. DAVIS
face, he is more likely to meet it if he does not dissipate his
time and energy and thought upon subjects for which he is
not responsible.
While I am speaking of this matter, let me add that a
geographer should resent the implication made by those who
argue that the interest or importance of certain non-
geographical matters is reason enough for their introduction
into geographical essays. To accept that argument is a con
fession that the truly geographical elements in geographical
essays are of so little importance and interest that such essays
need the stimulation of irrelevant matters. That is not true.
Geography needs no padding, no seasoning by items and
scraps of other subjects. It is, like them, sufficient unto it
self. Did you ever hear of an astronomer or a geometer or
a physicist or a botanist who thought that his science needed
to be spiced up by any other in order to attract attention?
Never! All kinds of subjects must be studied, and studied
for themselves in this studious world; and geography is one
of them. Let geography therefore be pursued as earnestly, as
devotedly, as wholeheartedly and as single-mindedly as any
other subject ; and let it accept cheerfully and contentedly the
place that it can win on its own merits in the constellation of
the sciences. THE LIMITS OF GEOGRAPHY
It is, however, certainly a curious thing that geography
still needs the development and definition of its content in the
manner that I have just intimated. One might almost call it
a moron among the sciences, for although it is very old in
years it has not yet come into the full possession of its senses.
It is a part of the duty of trained professional geographers to
arouse and awaken their science, both by defining and by lim
iting its content, especially in its regional aspect, which is the
culmination of geography. The solution of this task is
largely a question of the point of view ; and the essential point
of view for a geographer is one from which he can clearly see
the actual constitution of a region as it exists in the " today "
of human history. Let it be remembered that, as already
noted, the geography of a region of the earth must include its

A GRADUATE SCHOOL OF GEOGRAPHY 13
land and water forms, its climate, its more significant plants
and animals, its human inhabitants, its political divisions, its
products and industries, and its trade and transportation ; and
that all these elements must be conceived in their actual spacial
relations, as they exist together and interact upon one
another. Regional geography is therefore an immensely com
plex subject, even if all non-geographical elements are ex
cluded from it ; all the more wisely therefore should a geogra
pher hold only to truly geographical elements, as above
intimated. Indeed, even when properly limited, regional geography
is so complex that some critics assert it cannot be successfully
mastered and treated by one man. There is no question that
it cannot successfully be treated by a geographically unin
formed, untrained, undisciplined man; or by a trained man
who gives part of his attention to other sciences ; and it may
perhaps be true that it cannot be so well treated by one
informed, trained and disciplined geographer working alone
as by several informed, trained and disciplined geographers,
each responsible for a part of the total subject and all working
together in a team. No decision need be made on that ques
tion now, because the problem has never been given study
long enough and serious enough to answer it. My own belief,
however, is that such a staff of professional geographers as I
have indicated will, after a score of years or more, reach such
a measure of success in their tasks as to show that one-man
regional descriptions are of great value. But if that be
lief be wrong, and if one-man geography be insufficient, the
remedy is simple enough ; geographical exploration must then
be done by pairs of geographers, or trios, or quartettes, or
groups working together, each member supplementing the
work of his associates. Whatever the decision is on this
point matters very little today ; the essential thing is that the
work must be done, and done in the best way possible.
So much then for the content of geography. Now for its
methods. THE ART OF GEOGRAPHICAL DESCRIPTION
The staff of a Graduate School of Geography will have to
take their share not only in defining and cultivating a scien-

14 WILLIAM M. DAVIS
tific method of geographical investigation; they must also
develop an artful method of geographical description. While
a geographer is in the field, the subject of his investigation and
his method of attacking it will occupy his mind. When he
returns home the statement of his results in form for their
communication to others will occupy his mind. In both
occasions his mind will be fully occupied, however great his
capacity. The science of investigation is somewhat technical ;
I cannot discuss it here; but the art of presentation may be
briefly considered. Many results of exploration may be best
presented on maps; some results may be presented in photo
graphs, sketches and diagrams; some in models and some in
statistical tables; but the great body of results is best pre
sented in words. Now, while the geographical facts coexist
simultaneously in their regions, they cannot be presented sim
ultaneously in a report upon a region ; a written report must
present them consecutively, word after word, line after line,
page after page. It may surprise you to learn, but I believe
it to be true, that the future staff of geographers in the Clark
Graduate School of Geography will have a very serious prob
lem to solve before they can establish, even in general terms,
a standard method of presenting or reporting upon the
results of their explorations.
By such a standard method I do not mean anything rigid
and inflexible; but a method that will give the reader of a
report a true and vivid concept of the region described. For
just as accuracy is the essential object in the science of inves
tigation, so intelligibility is the essential object in the art of
presentation, and one of these high qualities is about as diffi
cult of acquisition as the other. It is unfortunately true that
certain leading geographers are stronger in the possession of
their science within themselves than in its presentation to
others. It would almost seem, from their preference for pos
session and their indifference to the fine art of presentation,
that they hold possession to be in geography, as it is in the
law, nine points of the whole ten; but that is an unscholarly
attitude. Of what avail is knowledge if it is not clearly set
forth; of what value is an obscure presentation in which at
least a part of the truth is lost. I trust that no professor or

A GRADUATE SCHOOL OF GEOGRAPHY 15
student of geography in Clark University will be indifferent
in this matter ; for accuracy in investigation and intelligibility
in presentation are correlated essentials, and hence lack of
intelligibility in presentation is too often an accompaniment
of a sort of carelessness that is incompatible with accuracy in
investigation. ERRORS TO BE AVOIDED
How is the art of geographical presentation to be acquired
and communicated? Perhaps you may imagine that articles
and reports of standard excellence in the presentation of
problems in regional geography already abound, and that all
that is needed is to adopt and copy their method; but such
is by no means the case. In the first place a large number of
articles and books commonly classed as 'geographical are
chiefly narratives in which the narrator, often an untrained
traveler, gives a leading position to his personal experiences,
although they are very subjective matters. Narrative pre
sentation is certainly entertaining to the general reader, and
it is not to be dispensed with ; but it falls far short of satisfy
ing the objective demands of scientific geography, just as the
narrative of a plant collector would fall short of the demands
of scientific botany.
In the second place many geographical articles and reports,
although they are presented in a descriptive instead of in a
narrative form, nevertheless treat problems of less extent
than those of full-fledged regional geography ; they are useful
contributions to geographical science, but they fail to reach
a complete regional treatment. In the third place, many
articles that are in part regional are also in part analytical,
in that they attempt to demonstrate an explanation for some
fact or phenomenon that they describe; indeed, such articles
are often largely geological, in that they turn attention away
from the facts of today and direct it to the past conditions
and processes by which the present-day facts have been
brought about. Articles of this kind are indispensable to
progress, but their analytical discussions should be completed
before regional description is begun; their results should be
standardized and systematized before they can be properly
used in regional description; and when the results are em-

16 WILLIAM M. DAVIS
ployed in their standardized and systematized form, the an
alysis upon which the standardization and systematization are
based should not be repeated. Explanatory description in a
regional essay should be used without any analytical
demonstration. THE DIFFICULTY OF REGIONAL DESCRIPTION
Finally, when regional description is attempted, it is too
often inexpert in that it fails in the prime object of such
description; namely, to give a vivid account of all the geo
graphical elements of a region in their natural and interde
pendent combinations. Some such articles are faulty in a
way that shows clearly enough how undeveloped the art of
geographical presentation still is ; for they leave their readers
to work out, by the aid of such maps as they may possess,
various details of location which (the author himself ought to
have made clear once for all, by map, diagram or otherwise.
Many other such articles are faulty in attempting to define
the location of physical features or boundaries in terms of the
location of small towns or villages, the names of which are
not only unknown to most readers, but undiscoverable even in
good atlases! Very few such articles present at the outset
a simple account of the whole region and of its subdivisions
in such manner that, whenever any local feature is later
mentioned, it may be at once and very easily located in terms
of the introductory account; and as a result geographical
descriptions are often so obscure and difficult to follow that
even geographers turn aside from them, discouraged. It is
as if the investigator felt indifferent to the labor that his
readers must undergo while reading his report, before they
can learn what he has done, without realizing that such
indifference costs him a loss of influence.
GEOGRAPHERS AND TRAVELERS
One of the reasons for these various deficiencies in the
present status of geography deserves explicit mention : it is
that the authors of articles published in the geographical
periodicals of the leading geographical societies of the world
are in a regrettable number of instances, not trained and dis-

A GRADUATE SCHOOL OF GEOGRAPHY 17
ciplined geographers, but simply intelligent and observant
travelers. It would seem that such persons, on visiting and
returning from a little traveled region, were thereupon pop
ularly classed as geographers, whatever they were before
their travels began; and this idea is given support by the
character of the membership of many geographical societies,
because such membership is made up largely of generously-
minded persons who, whether they have traveled or not, are
glad to support the work of the societies in which they are
enrolled. That they should do so is most gratifying, but that
they should be regarded as geographers because of so doing
is disappointing.
To return to astronomy for an illustration, do you suppose
that the Astronomical Society of America is made up of
intelligent persons who like to look at the nocturnal sky and
recognize the constellations, and of persons who, whether
they like to look at the sky or not, have pleasure in con
tributing to the cost of publishing an astronomical journal?
Not at all : that society is made up of qualified astronomers ;
no others need apply. But so far as I know only one of the
many geographical societies in the world limits its members
to geographers; and, although its requirements for member
ship are not severe, and although diligent search has been
made to discover as many qualified members as possible, that
society has not yet succeeded in discovering 200 persons fit
to be members in its country of over 100,000,000 population.
Whatever the cause of the characteristic imperfections in
regional presentation today, it is manifest that improvements
can be made only by persistent conscious effort. A large
share of the attention of research professors in a Graduate
School of Geography must be directed to making that effort
successful. MEANS AND MEN
It is an easy matter to outline the constitution of a Gradu
ate School of Geography, as I have just done. It is a more
difficult matter to establish such a school. Obstacles of
two kinds stand in the way. Those of one kind are merely
difficulties; those of the other kind are more serious, they
are dangers. The difficulties are only those of finding means

18 WILLIAM M. DAVIS
and men. Difficulties of that kind can be overcome in time
if they are attacked energetically and persistently. Whether
the means or the men will be the easier to secure I cannot
say; but as to the men I believe that relatively few will be
found ready made; they will have to be engaged in an im
mature stage and developed to maturity here and elsewhere.
Of course some fully competent geographers will be brought
here, ready ,at once to undertake research. But it is more
probable that the staff will be built up gradually by the
engagement and promotion of young men. A practical
method to that end is to select a young man of promise and
give him opportunity for growth by study and travel, during
which he may specialize in one subject or another ; then on his
return he may be given an appointment for a term of years,
and at the end of that term, he may be given a permanent
appointment if his work has been such as to justify it. Gradual
growth in some such way will I believe lead to better results
than can be gained by the wholesale appointment of a full staff,
even if that were possible from the financial side of the prob
lem. In the mean time, instruction by visiting lecturers and
by professors invited for a year from Europe will add to the
attractiveness of whatever regular instruction can be given,
especially in the undergraduate department of the Uni
versity ; but neither visiting lecturers nor temporary professors
from abroad can give the solidity and continuity of work
that should characterize a properly constituted and truly
American Graduate School jof Geography. Hence if the
proposed staff of nine research professors is established in ten
or twenty years, that will be doing well, remarkably well.
THE PROPER STANDARD FOR A GRADUATE SCHOOL OF GEOGRAPHY
The dangers are more serious. They will arise chiefly from
the pressure and urgency of students, of undergraduate rank
geographically, whose needs, indeed, whose deficiencies, will
tend to divert the professors of the Graduate School proper
from their primary duty, research, to a secondary duty, teach
ing. I must here point out an essential difference; between teach
ing and studying. In secondary schools, the teachers must
do a great deal of teaching because the pupils are only just

A GRADUATE SCHOOL OF GEOGRAPHY 19
learning how to study. In colleges, the teaching by the pro
fessors and the studying by the students may about balance
each other. In properly constituted graduate schools the
properly prepared students should be expected to do most of
their study by themselves ; the duty of the graduate staff of
professors is chiefly to set example and pace by doing their
own research work, and to give occasional guidance to students
working with them, but not to do set teaching.
Now, the mere announcement that Clark University is going
to establish a Graduate School of Geography will attract col
lege graduates to come here. Some such graduates will be
properly qualified by their previous studies to enter the Grad
uate School at once, but many of them will come from colleges
where the undergraduate teaching of geography is so imper
fectly developed that they will not be sufficiently grounded in
the elements to enter upon truly advanced work. What shall
be done with such students when they arrive here? Mani
festly they should have more undergraduate instruction, but
they will not like to be enrolled with undergraduates again.
Yet if they are immediately admitted to the Graduate School
of Geography, its standard as a school of research will be
injuriously lowered.
I therefore suggest that the present graduate department of
the University be continued without specification of subjects
studied; and that graduates of other colleges on coming here
should be enrolled in that graduate department until they
have completed the requirements for admission to the
Graduate School of Geography.
But even so, the introductory teaching that they will need,
as well as the introductory teaching needed by Clark under
graduates who propose to make geography their life work,
will demand that a considerable body of undergraduate teach
ing in geography be offered here; and for that purpose three
professors will be called for at the very least. There is danger
that the research professors in the Graduate School of
Geography will be drawn into this work. Naturally enough,
undergraduate geography will be developed here before the
Graduate School of Geography is fully established; and with
such a beginning it may be difficult to establish a Graduate

20 WILLIAM M. DAVIS
School of the kind I have outlined. The college professors
of geography will themselves wish to have some time for orig
inal studies ; some of them will wish to give graduate instruc
tion. And thus, even if one or two research professors are
added, a half -developed Graduate School of Geography may
grow up, in which research is only incidental and secondary,
and teaching of an undergraduate grade is the larger duty.
The very respectability of such an arrangement is ominous.
It will be so good that a better arrangement, a real professional
School of Geography may be lost sight of; and yet a mixed
school of that sort will be only " another " school of the
mixed kind ; and being attached to a small university instead
of to a large one it will have no particular merits ; it will not
stand out with a pre-eminence of its own. As I am only a
Commencement speaker and not a Trustee, my duty goes no
farther than to point out this threatening danger. It will
be for others to provide safeguards against it. I may, how
ever, note in passing that, although a number of other uni
versities have already reached the stage of offering geographi
cal instruction in both their undergraduate and graduate de
partments, none of them think it worth while to segregate the
graduate part of such mixed instruction under so ambitious
a name as a Graduate School of Geography ; and I believe that
they are quite right in not doing so because they do not pro
pose, for the present at least, to provide opportunity for
advanced work in geography so far in excess of that provided
in other subjects as to warrant the announcement of a School
of Geography. It is here that the opportunity for geography
in Clark University is likely to be for a long time unique ; be
cause in this University geography is, if I understand the plans
of the Trustees correctly, to be given as great pre-eminence
over other subjects of graduate study as possible. It cannot
reach great pre-eminence immediately, for as I have already
pointed out it is not possible immediately to secure a staff of
research professors. The unique feature of geographical
opportunity at Clark is therefore the aim in view; namely,
to establish a real Graduate School of Geography as soon as
possible. The recent appointment of a geographer to the
presidency of the University is evidence of the seriousness

A GRADUATE SCHOOL OF GEOGRAPHY 21
with which this aim is regarded by the Trustees. They
have my heartiest good wishes for their success, but it is
evident that success cannot be reached if the research pro
fessors in the Graduate School are distracted from their
proper work by the necessity of giving undergraduate
instruction. UNDERGRADUATE PREPARATION FOR GRADUATE WORK
There is a second danger about as serious as the first. Prop
erly qualified members of a properly constituted Graduate
School of Geography ought not only to have already acquired
a good understanding of fundamental undergraduate courses
in geography; they should also have acquired a good under
standing of some one or two other subjects allied to those sys
tematic divisions of geography in which they propose to
specialize. The requisite undergraduate courses in geography
itself should represent several of the chief systematic divisions
of geographical science; for example, land and water forms,
climatology, human geography, economic geography ; and also
one or two introductory courses in regional geography, for
example, North America and some other continent. These
taken together should constitute the equivalent of a whole
year's undergraduate work at least. But in addition thereto,
a student who proposes to specialize in one or another division
of systematic geography should have made good undergradu
ate progress in some other subject closely allied to that
division. Thus, one who specializes in human geography should have
taken several undergraduate courses in the allied subject of
history on one hand, or in anthropology and ethnology on the
other. A student who proposes to specialize in economic
geography should be well prepared in the allied subject of
economics; and one who selects plant geography or animal
geography for his special subject of preference, should be well
grounded in the allied subject of botany or zoology; and so
on. These allied subjects should occupy from half a year to a
year of undergraduate study. Furthermore, a real facility in
reading French and German and, still more important, a
trained capacity to write good English should be included

22 WILLIAM M. DAVIS
among the results of undergraduate study. No student, of
whatever college he may be a graduate, should be admitted
to the Clark Graduate School of Geography if he falls seri
ously short in any of these undergraduate requirements.
He may be admitted, of course to the graduate department of
the University, if he holds a bachelor's degree from any
reputable collegiate institution; but so long as he has
serious deficiencies in the undergraduate preparation for
the graduate study of geography, he ought not to be admitted
to the Clark Graduate School of Geography, or to any other
such graduate school. For in just so far as a member of a
professional graduate school uses his time there on under
graduate studies, he lowers the standing of the school; and
any one who looks on the high standing of his school with
pride should be jealous of all influences which tend to lower it.
The seriousness of this danger of unpreparedness and the
importance of establishing safeguards against it ought to be
manifest to any one who is familiar with the demoralizing
influence exerted on a graduate student's work for a higher
degree by the necessity of making up undergraduate defi
ciencies at the same time. Work for a higher degree should
occupy a student's whole attention. If in his graduate years
he is giving part of his time to undergraduate subjects, which
he ought to have studied earlier, he is not only distracted
thereby from his proper graduate work, but the graduate
work which he does will be weakened by reason of not being
based on a completed foundation. In a word, the student mem
bers of a professional graduate school ought to be well trained
for the work that they have to do there; as such they consti
tute a select body of which any institution must be proud.
THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN STUDYING AND BEING TAUGHT
You may now understand better than before what was
meant by my earlier insistence that teaching should not be a
prime duty of the research professors in a true Graduate
School of Geography; for the fact that they are not to teach
does not imply that they are to have no students. Of course,
they are to have students, properly qualified graduate stu
dents; and the students are to study; but the professors are

A GRADUATE SCHOOL OF GEOGRAPHY 23
not to teach in the ordinary sense of the word. The students
having reached that stage of their education when they have
learned how to study and when they really wish to study,
are to study chiefly by themselves on their special subjects.
The professors are to propose problems for them, to advise
and to guide them in the study of the problems, to hold con
ferences with them, but not to teach them. And with the con
ception of a body of professors devoted chiefly to research
in the several departments of a single science, and of a body
of students devoted chiefly to study in different subdivisions
of the same science, you may imagine the atmosphere by which
a Graduate School should be enveloped. It is one of the
most delightful, most inspiring atmospheres in which human
beings can live.
THE PREPARATION OF TEACHERS OF GEOGRAPHY
A practical question may, however, rise in your minds.
If the requirements of a Graduate School of Geography are
so high, is it likely that any students will wish to enter it?
I can give several very confident answers to that question.
In the first place, a candidate for the position of teacher in
a secondary school ought not to be encouraged to enter it.
He can acquire during his undergraduate college years as
much knowledge of the subjects which he is to teach as he
will need ; and, moreover, inasmuch as a school teacher should
be more interested in the boys and girls that he teaches than
in the subjects which the boys and girls are to be taught, it
is not necessary for him to carry preparatory studies to the
point of becoming engrossed in research. In the second place,
a candidate for the position of professor of geography in a
college should without question be encouraged to enter such
a Graduate School of Geography as I have outlined, and to
stay there long enough to earn a master's degree at least, and
a doctor's degree if possible. College professors ought to be
learned persons; and as a preparatory step toward becoming
learned they ought to have breathed an atmosphere of learn
ing for a year or two. To be sure, a candidate for a professor
ship in a college where the teaching of geography is com
bined with the teaching of another subject may make the

24

WILLIAM M. DAVIS

other subject his first interest, and may not, therefore, feel
justified in carrying his geographical preparation very far.
But it is encouraging to see that geography is coming to be
recognized in more and more of our colleges as a subject large
enough and important enough to occupy the whole of a pro
fessor's time. Young men who have the ambition to be pro
fessors of geography in colleges of that grade should be urged
to take a doctor's degree in geography; and to young men of
that sort the Clark Graduate School of Geography should be
powerfully attractive, if it is organized on the lines I have
indicated. GEOGRAPHICAL ENGINEERS
But there is an altogether different group of positions for
which young men will be increasingly needed as the affairs
of the world, now so disordered, return to a more normal
condition, and as, in consequence of that return, international
commerce comes to flourish again, particularly those branches
of international commerce which have to do with the less
known continents of South America, Africa and Asia. At that
time, which we may hope will not be too long delayed, many
of our larger commercial houses will find, as some of the most
enterprising have already found, that they need much more
information than is ordinarily available regarding the more
distant parts of the world; and they will learn that it is
profitable to secure that information from trained experts.
In my opinion the experts who can best give that sort of
information will be high grade geographers, who have special
ized in economic geography as well as in the regional
geography of one or another continent.
The Clark Graduate School of Geography ought to make
a specialty of training such men : their specialty ought to be
called geographical engineering, and those who become pro
ficient in it ought to receive the degree of Geographical
Engineer. Needless to add that training of that kind must
be based on a broad and firm foundation of undergraduate
studies in a well equipped college, and must be extended by
continuing those studies in a thoroughgoing professional
School of Geography; and the training will need one other
element, namely, after the professional study is well advanced,

A GRADUATE SCHOOL OF GEOGRAPHY 25
a year of studious travel in the continent selected for special
attention. For, although the later work of a geographical
engineer must be largely of so practical a nature as to satisfy
the money-making demands of commerce, the preparation for
that work cannot be made by learning definite answers to
set questions. The problems that the geographical engineer
has to answer will be as a rule so novel, so individual, that his
best training for them will be found first in the comprehensive
acquisition of all the fundamental knowledge in his specialty,
and second in the original study of novel and individual
problems in the same specialty, that is, research in economic
geography. Hence even for this most practical field of geo
graphical science, experts will be best made ready by close
association with older experts who are carrying on researches
in the same field. Men who have received high-grade prepara
tion of that kind will be sought for and prized.
THE CLARK SCHOOL A CENTER OF GEOGRAPHICAL ACTIVITY
Can you not imagine the eagerness and earnestness with
which the students in a Graduate School of Geography will
pursue their studies ? They will be proud of their association
with a staff of research professors; they will be devoted to
their science and delighted with the opportunity that the
School affords of advancing themselves in it; they will be
ambitious to become proficient in the science and to apply
their proficiency to serious tasks in the actual world. Can you
not understand also that the presence of such a Graduate
School of Geography in Worcester, with its corps of expert pro
fessors, its well developed material equipment, its body of en
thusiastic students and its exhilarating scholarly atmosphere,
will attract intending and returning travelers to visit it, to
stay near it for a time, and to establish more or less formal
relations with it? An intending traveler may well spend
several months under its influence while making preparations
for his journey; a returning traveler may advisedly remain
an entire year in its wholesome atmosphere while writing his
account of an accomplished journey. Can you not see that
the school will become a notable center of geographical activity
if its development follow serious professional lines? It will

26

WILLIAM M. DAVIS

inevitably become such a center, and it will thereby exert
a greatly needed and most beneficent influence on the cultiva
tion of scientific geography all over our country. That the
beginning now made should have some such consummation is
my devout wish. When that wish is realized, then wherever
geography is seriously spoken of in America, the speaker and
his hearers will find themselves thinking spontaneously of the
Graduate School of Geography at Clark University.

YALE UNIVERSITY LIBRARY

3 9002 08837 1902