Brown, Ralph H.

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Brown, Ralph H.

Ralph Hall Brown (1898–1948), American geographer, was born in Ayer, Massachusetts. He graduated from the University of Pennsylvania in 1921 and received his ph.d. from the University of Wisconsin in 1925. For the next four years he served at the University of Colorado, first as an instructor and then as an assistant professor. In 1929 he moved to the University of Minnesota, where he served as an assistant, then as an associate, and finally as a full professor until his death. He produced a continuous series of articles and other publications, dealing with various parts of the United States and concerned mainly with historical geography, which he defined as the presentation of “the geography of the past”—the geographical reconstruction of the past, not the study of the influence of geography upon history or the examination of changing political boundaries. His work in reconstructing the past was characterized by the use of a wide variety of original sources, eyewitness accounts, and contemporary maps, published and unpublished. Among many contributions, the most outstanding were his two books, Mirror for Americans (1943) and Historical Geography of the United States (1948).

Mirror for Americans, subtitled Likeness of the Eastern Seaboard, 1810, with the word “likeness” being used in its old meaning of image or portrait, is an unusual reconstruction of the past geography of an area. Brown carried the idea of making an areal cross section of the past to its logical conclusion. He invented an imaginary author of the early nineteenth century, Thomas P. Keystone, and wrote the book that Keystone might have written in 1810, based upon the sources that were available at the time. These sources were treated with the understanding that could be expected of a man of 1810; and the thought, the style of presentation, the maps and illustrations, even the language, are those of the period.

In appraising the method of the book, two points must be borne in mind. In the first place, the idiosyncrasy of the treatment has a limiting effect in the sense that the reconstruction does not avail itself of our modern knowledge of the relief and soils and climate of the eastern seaboard. The imaginary Keystone was obviously a man who not only had something to say but who could say it well; yet a study by Brown himself would have given us, in some respects, an even clearer view of the geography of the area in 1810. Thomas P. Keystone’s account partakes of the nature of genuine early sources, e.g., Thomas Jefferson’s Notes on the State of Virginia, 1784–1785, or the geo-graphical works of Jedidiah Morse, which appeared about 1800; these are sources that form some of the raw materials for a modern study of past geography. In the second place, the method of Mirror for Americans is not one that can be generally followed with the likelihood of any great success. As one looks back in time, the language, the outlook, and the method of exposition in the receding ages become more and more different from our own, until one reaches a point when a “reconstruction” in Brown’s manner could have but little value. It is difficult, for example, to envisage a very useful presentation, along these lines, of the geography of an area during the Middle Ages.

Yet, even when the full force of these points is allowed, who would wish Mirror for Americans to be any different? It is a magnificent tour de force and an intellectual exercise that throws light upon some of the problems involved in the creation of the “historic present.” It is, moreover, a work of great charm that must delight all who read it.

Five years after Mirror for Americans, Brown published his Historical Geography of the United States. This pioneer study will always be of interest to students of American geography, however much later work amplifies and modifies its conclusions. The book contains six parts, each dealing with a particular area at a critical formative period in its development and in that of the United States: The Colonization Period; The Atlantic Seaboard at the Opening of the Nineteenth Century; The Ohio River and the Lower Great Lakes Regions, to 1830; The New Northwest, 1820–1870; The Great Plains and Bordering Regions, to 1870; From the Rocky Mountains to the Pacific Coast, to 1870. The terminal date of the volume is 1870, and there is a chapter devoted to a cross section of “The United States in 1870.” This does not, however, appear at the end of the volume but as Chapter 13 at the end of Part Four—that is, at a point from which one can look backward to review changes in the East and forward to anticipate changes in the West.

It must have been an extremely difficult task to organize the material for the greater part of a continent into a coherent “historical geography”; and, inevitably, such a pioneer attempt is open to criticism. Four obvious points of criticism at once spring to mind, all arising from omission. In the first place, the Atlantic seaboard is not described after 1810 because, so we are told, of “limitations of space.” In the second place, there is very little reference to Ohio, Michigan, Indiana, and Illinois after about 1830. Then again, not much is said about the Southwest before about 1850. Finally, there is scarcely any reference to the South (to states such as Louisiana and Mississippi) during any period. In view of these omissions, some such title as “Studies in the Historical Geography of the United States” might well have been more appropriate. But to be critical is not to be lacking in appreciation, and one must salute this great study, based largely on original sources, as a landmark in the development of the study of American historical geography.

H. C. Darby