Mark Jefferson was the chief cartographer of the American Delegation to the Paris Peace Conference in 1919. He was also the head of the geography department at Michigan State Normal College (MSNC), now Eastern Michigan University

Eastern Michigan University

Eastern Michigan University is a comprehensive, co-educational public university located in Ypsilanti, Michigan. Ypsilanti is west of Detroit and eight miles east of Ann Arbor. The university was founded in 1849 as Michigan State Normal School...

 (EMU), from 1901-1939.

Jefferson received his bachelors degree from Boston University

Boston University

Boston University is a private research university located in Boston, Massachusetts. With more than 4,000 faculty members and more than 31,000 students, Boston University is one of the largest private universities in the United States and one of Boston's largest employers...

 and his masters degree from Harvard University

Harvard University

Harvard University is a private Ivy League university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States, established in 1636 by the Massachusetts legislature. Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States and the first corporation chartered in the country...

. From 1883-1889 he worked at an astronomical observatory in Argentina. From 1890-1901 he was a high school teacher in Massachusetts. In addition to teaching at MSNC he also taught at the Harvard Summer School. Among Jefferson's students were geographers
Isaiah Bowman

Isaiah Bowman

Isaiah Bowman, AB, Ph. D. was an American geographer...

 and Charles C. Colby.

In 1916 Jefferson served as president of the American Association of Geographers.

A biography of Jefferson entitled Mark Jefferson geographer written by Geoffrey J. Martin was published by Eastern Michigan University Press in 1968. EMU has a building named after Mark Jefferson.

Sources

• CSISS article based on Jefferson's work
• Aurora (MSNC yearbook) 1918.
• Annals of the American Association of Geographers Vol. 39, no. 4