EMU Today

YPSILANTI – The big building called “Mark Jefferson” sits imposingly at the western end of the Eastern Michigan University campus. It’s part of the Science Complex, a facility that puts EMU in the forefront of STEM education in Michigan.

But what’s the story behind the “Mark Jefferson” name. Who was he, and what did he do to merit naming such a significant building after him?

A great deal, it turns out. That became abundantly clear during a two-day conference at Eastern Oct. 17-18 that examined Jefferson’s legacy. A variety of seminars and discussions delved into his fascinating history.

The event marked 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, who lived from 1863-1949.

Jefferson was a pioneer in the discipline of geography. A native of Massachusetts, he studied at Boston University and Harvard, earning degrees in astronomy and geography.

In 1901, Jefferson was hired to chair the geography department at Michigan State Normal College (now EMU), where he taught until 1939. 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.

Among the EMU conference speakers who offered insights into this remarkable history were Wesley Reisser, a Senior Officer in the State Department who also teaches geography at George Washington University; and recent EMU alumnus Dustin Elliott, who conducted research with the Jefferson papers at the EMU Archives for his senior seminar paper in history professor Mary-Elizabeth Murphy’s class.

Dustin Elliott: "Forged Among Foreigners: Examining the Early Influences on Mark Jefferson's Career"

Elliott noted that 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.

Among Elliott’s observations:

• “In 1883, 20-year-old Mark Jefferson embarked upon his first voyage to South America with only three years of college under his belt and an incomplete undergraduate degree. He spent the next three years in Cordoba working in the observatory, where he obtained crucial cultural experience that would help to focus the trajectory of his career. He immersed himself in Cordoban society and joined the Cordoban Foreigners Club.”

• “Jefferson described this club as being, ‘eighty members strong ... where men from forty different countries were constantly engrossed in their mutual awareness and appreciation of difference.’”

• “Due to Jefferson's time spent in the Foreigners Club as well as the diverse culture around him, he honed certain skills that would prove to be great assets. Between the years 1880 and 1890, Europe was disgorging annually 100,000 emigrants into the Argentine. This transformed the Cordoban area into what some have called a language laboratory."

• “Because of this atmosphere, Jefferson’s linguistic skills improved dramatically, which would greatly benefit him in the future. Before Jefferson left the United States for Argentina, he had already acquired a working knowledge of Latin, Greek, German, French, Italian, and Spanish during his time at Boston University. But it was in Argentina where his mastery of language really took form.”

• “Jefferson was very open about his desires to travel and see the world. In light of this interest, it made sense that he would seek out a career that would facilitate achieving this goal.”