Her Career Takes Off
The publication of her first book launched Semple's career. In 1904, she became one of the forty-eight charter members of the Association of American Geographers, under the presidency of William Morris Davis. That same year she was appointed Associate Editor of the Journal of Geography, a position she retained until 1910.
In 1906, she was recruited by the country's first Department of Geography, at the University of Chicago. (The Department of Geography at the University of Chicago was established in 1903.) She remained affiliated with the University of Chicago until 1924 and taught there in alternating years.
Semple's second major book was published in 1911. Influences of Geographic Environment further expounded on Semple's environmental deterministic viewpoint. She felt that climate and geographic location was the major cause of a person's actions. In the book, she cataloged countless examples to prove her point. For example, she reported that those who live in mountain passes are usually robbers. She provided case studies to prove her point but she didn't include or discuss counter examples that could prove her theory wrong.
Semple was an academic of her era and while her ideas can be considered racist or exceedingly simple today, she opened up new arenas of thought within the discipline of geography. Later geographic thought rejected the simple cause and effect of Semple's day.
That same year, Semple and a few friends took a trip to Asia and visited Japan (for three months), China, the Philippines, Indonesia, and India. The trip provided a tremendous amount of fodder for additional articles and presentations over the next few years. In 1915, Semple developed her passion for the geography of the Mediterranean region and spent much of her time researching and writing about this portion of the world for the remainder of her life.
In 1912, she taught geography at Oxford University and was a lecturer at Wellesley College, the University of Colorado, Western Kentucky University, and UCLA over the course of the next two decades. During World War I, Semple responded to the war effort as did most geographers by giving lectures to officers about the geography of the Italian front. After the war, she continued her teaching.
In 1921, Semple was elected President of the Association of American Geographers and accepted a position as a Professor of Anthropogeography at Clark University, a position she held until her death. At Clark, she taught seminars to graduate students in the fall semester and spent the spring semester researching and writing. Throughout her academic career, she averaged one important paper or book each year.
Later in Life
The University of Kentucky honored Semple in 1923 with an honorary doctorate degree in law and established the Ellen Churchill Semple Room to house her private library. Stricken with a heart attack in 1929, Semple began to succumb to ill health. During this time she was working on her third important book - about the geography of the Mediterranean. Following a lengthy hospital stay, she was able to move to a home adjacent to Clark University and with the help of a student, she published Geography of the Mediterranean Region in 1931.
She moved from Worcester, Massachusetts (the location of Clark University) to the warmer climate of Ashevlle, North Carolina in late 1931 in an attempt to restore her health. Doctors there recommend an even milder climate and lower elevation so a month later she moved to West Palm Beach, Florida. She died in West Palm Beach on May 8, 1932 and was buried at the Cave Hill Cemetery in her hometown of Louisville, Kentucky.
A few months after her death, the Ellen C. Semple School was dedicated in Louisville, Kentucky. Semple School is still in existence today. The University of Kentucky Geography Department hosts an Ellen Churchill Semple Day every spring to honor the discipline of geography and its accomplishments.
Despite Carl Sauer's assertion that Semple was "a mere American mouthpiece for her German master," Ellen Semple was a prolific geographer who served the discipline well and succeeded despite tremendous obstacles for her gender in the halls of academia. She definitely deserves to be recognized for her contribution to the advancement of geography.
