ABSTRACT
This chapter begins by considering the presence of geography in American culture and in education leading up to the Progressive Era. It then considers the traditional practices of geography and cartography and their association with power and control. In approaching the practice of women's geography and cartography, the chapter draws on the work of Donna Haraway and Bruno Latour to unpack the networks that were operating and how they employed their studies and maps. Geography and maps were widely available to the American public in the nineteenth century, with education including a healthy dose of geography for boys and girls. Geography and cartography are tied to imperialism, power, and control, with maps communicating "an imperial message used as an aggressive complement to the rhetoric of speeches, newspapers and written texts". The chapter concludes with a brief overview of the chapters, each centered on a different practice of geography and cartography by women in Progressive Era America.
