George Goudie Chisholm

FRSE Fellowship of the Royal Society of Edinburgh (FRSE) is an award granted to individuals that the Royal Society of Edinburgh, Scotland's national academy of science and Literature, letters, judged to be "eminently distinguished in their subject". ...

FRSGS LLD (1 May 1850 – 9 February 1930) was a Scottish

geographer A geographer is a physical scientist, social scientist or humanist whose area of study is geography, the study of Earth's natural environment and human society, including how society and nature interacts. The Greek prefix "geo" means "earth" a ...

. He authored the first English-language textbook on

economic geography Economic geography is the subfield of human geography that studies economic activity and factors affecting it. It can also be considered a subfield or method in economics. Economic geography takes a variety of approaches to many different topi ...

: ''Handbook on Commercial Geography'' (1889) and the ''World Gazetteer,'' later to become known as ''The Times Gazetteer.''

Life

Chisolm was born in

Edinburgh Edinburgh is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. The city is located in southeast Scotland and is bounded to the north by the Firth of Forth and to the south by the Pentland Hills. Edinburgh ...

on 1 May 1850, the son of an

actuary An actuary is a professional with advanced mathematical skills who deals with the measurement and management of risk and uncertainty. These risks can affect both sides of the balance sheet and require investment management, asset management, ...

. He was educated at the Royal High School in Edinburgh, and then the

University of Edinburgh The University of Edinburgh (, ; abbreviated as ''Edin.'' in Post-nominal letters, post-nominals) is a Public university, public research university based in Edinburgh, Scotland. Founded by the City of Edinburgh Council, town council under th ...

, graduating in 1870. He lectured on Geography in London from 1883 to 1908 and then returned to the University of Edinburgh where he lectured until 1923. He served as Secretary to the Scottish Geographical Society for 15 years. In 1923 he received an honorary doctorate (LLD) from the University, and elected a Fellow of the

Royal Society of Edinburgh The Royal Society of Edinburgh (RSE) is Scotland's national academy of science and letters. It is a registered charity that operates on a wholly independent and non-partisan basis and provides public benefit throughout Scotland. It was establis ...

in 1924. He authored the first English-language textbook on

: ''Handbook on Commercial Geography'' (1889). It was later revised by Kenneth Stamp. (). He authored a review of Friedrich Naumann's Pan-German work on Central Europe which appeared in The Scottish Geographical Magazine issue 33, which condemned the aggressively militaristic overtones of Naumann's nationalistic work. His ''World Gazetteer'' of 1895, a huge project, later became commonly known as The Times Gazetteer. On Sunday 9 February 1930 he died quietly on a tram in

. He was 79.

Publications

*''The Two Hemispheres: A Popular Account of Peoples and Countries of the World'' (1882) *''A Pronouncing Vocabulary of Modern Geographical Names'' (1885) *''Handbook of Commercial Geography'' (1889)+ (1908) *''Longman's School Geography for South Africa'' (1891) *
Gazetteer of the World
' (1895) published by Longman *''Europe'' (2 vols) (1899) *''Junior School Geography'' *''Longman's School Geography for India and Ceylon'' *''The World As It Is: A Popular Account of Peoples and Countries of the Earth'' *''A Smaller Commercial Geography'' *''Longman's School Geography for Australasia''

Family

He married Florence Jones in 1884.

Recognition

In 1917, he was awarded the Charles P. Daly Medal of the

American Geographical Society The American Geographical Society (AGS) is an organization of professional geographers, founded in 1851 in New York City. Most fellows of the society are United States, Americans, but among them have always been a significant number of fellows f ...

References

External links

* * 1850 births 1930 deaths Scottish geographers Academics from Edinburgh Alumni of the University of Edinburgh Academics of the University of Edinburgh Fellows of the Royal Society of Edinburgh Fellows of the Royal Scottish Geographical Society Scientists from Edinburgh {{geographer-stub