This year marks the 100th anniversary of the Versailles Peace Conference—the meeting of world leaders that established a new international order after World War I. In 1919, presidents, diplomats, and state leaders gathered in Paris to redraw national boundaries, negotiate settlements, and work toward peace in a time of global upheaval. The person responsible for drawing the maps used by delegates in their negotiations was Eastern Michigan University Geography Professor Mark Jefferson (1863-1949).
Jefferson was a pioneer in the discipline of geography. A native of Massachusetts, he studied at Boston University and Harvard University, earning degrees in astronomy and geography. Jefferson was fluent in six languages and traveled to Argentina in the 1880s, where he served as an assistant astronomer at the National Observatory in Cordoba. In 1901, Jefferson was hired to chair the geography department at Michigan State Normal College, where he taught until 1939. While at MSNC, Jefferson emphasized fieldwork and hands-on education for his geography students. In addition to a distinguished record of teaching, Jefferson authored more than 200 scholarly publications and continued to travel in Europe and South America. Scholars consider Jefferson to be one of the most accomplished geographers of his era, and he received the Cullum Geographical Medal from the American Geographical Society.
Jefferson’s most noteworthy accomplishment was his role at Versailles. In 1918, Jefferson was asked to serve as the chief cartographer for the American Commission to Negotiate Peace. Between December 1918 and June 1919, Jefferson oversaw the creation of more than 500 maps that marked new boundaries in postwar Europe, Asia, and Africa.
The departments of Geography & Geology, History & Philosophy, and Political Science at Eastern Michigan University are pleased to sponsor an interdisciplinary symposium on Friday, October 18, 2019 that commemorates Mark Jefferson’s contributions to Versailles and celebrates the legacy of EMU’s most distinguished faculty member. Speakers include Jeremy Crampton and Wesley Reisser, two geographers who have published on Jefferson’s work at Versailles, EMU students Cassie Thayer and Dustin Elliott, who have conducted research with the Jefferson papers at the EMU Archives, EMU Archivist Alexis Braun Marks, and EMU history professor and World War I expert, Jesse Kauffman. This symposium is an opportunity for EMU students, faculty, and staff and the broader community to engage with Jefferson’s distinguished career, the legacy of the Versailles conference, and EMU’s connections with World War I. As a geographer, professor, and public intellectual, Mark Jefferson epitomizes the ways that Eastern Michigan University has recruited faculty of the highest caliber and emphasized academic excellence.