CONTRIBUTION OF JOHN DANIEL GROSS TO AMERICAN GEOGRAPHY

ABSTRACT

Early geography in the United States has a rich history, though not always understood or acknowledged. One American geographer in the pre-Humboldt era who has been largely overlooked is Columbia University’s John Daniel Gross, who has been described as “arguably the first American professional geographer.” The purpose of this research is to shed more light on this eighteenth-century geographer. Evidence suggests that, unlike some other prominent geographers of their day who subsequently became relegated to obscurity, Gross displayed neither controversial views nor a personality that conflicted with more powerful contemporary rivals. Instead, although geographical, synchronistic, epistemological, and personal attributes make it seem likely that his work created a bridge to the new geography of Alexander von Humboldt and Carl Ritter, his work and reputation appear to have been overshadowed by that of the “new geography.” The demise of Ivy League geography appears to have cemented his lost legacy.

Keywords::

• Columbia University
• history of geography
• Johan Gros
• John Daniel gross
• second great awakening

Notes

¹ Daniel Coit Gilman, professor of geography at Yale from 1863 to 1872, is sometimes credited as being the first person to hold a professorship devoted solely to geography and unlinked to any other subject (Wright 1961; Warntz 1964, 4).

² The mystery of the Gross legacy is deepened by the confusion surrounding his name, which appears as Johan Daniel Gros, John Daniel Gross, or some combination of the two (Abstracts of Wills, Montgomery County, New York (AWMCNY)). For consistency we use the latter hereafter, including when quoting materials that refer to him by a different variant on his name.

³ A third Morrill Act, in 1994, included the District of Columbia and predominantly Native American colleges and universities.

⁴ Vestiges of the English model eventually began to reappear, first at Harvard in the form of the residential college system by Edward Harkness and Abbott Lawrence Lowell in the 1930s (Alexander and Robertson 1998), and subsequently by the institution of living-learning communities, Divisions of Student Life, and other student-related amenities and organizations at other universities amid the ever-strengthening German model, to form the American model of higher education. By the postwar period, it had become clear that both the English and German models served important roles in American higher education.

⁵ It was Kemp who inspired De Witt Clinton to consider canal transportation in the early republic (Warntz 1964, 91).

⁶ Smith (1953) noted that Gross preferred the term “chronology” to emphasize the historical component of his geography.

⁷ The cited work in turn cites a source that we could not locate: The Study of History in American Colleges and Universities. Herbert B. Adams, Ph.D., Associate Professor of History, Johns Hopkins University. Bureau of Education, Circular of Information, No. 2, 60, 1887.