Platt, Robert S. (Robert Swanton), 1891-1964

Robert Swanton Platt was born in Columbus, Ohio, on December 4, 1891. He graduated from Yale in 1914, and taught at the Yale Collegiate School in Changsha, China from 1914-1915. Platt obtained a Ph. D. from the University of Chicago in 1920. In 1918, Platt joined the faculty of the University of Chicago, teaching there until his retirement in 1957 as chairman of the department of geography. Platt died in Chicago on March 1, 1964.

From the description of Robert Swanton Platt papers, 1913-1960 (inclusive), 1913-1919 (bulk). (Unknown). WorldCat record id: 702122691

Professor of geography, University of Chicago.

From the description of Papers, 1898-1980. (University of Chicago Library). WorldCat record id: 52248351

Robert Swanton Platt (1891-1964) was born in Columbus, Ohio, studied at St. George's School and the Hotchkiss School, and graduated from Yale in 1914. After teaching for a year at Yale in China at Changsha, he returned to the United States to enter the Department of Geography of the University of Chicago in 1915. Despite the interruption of military service during World War I, he completed his Ph.D. and was appointed an instructor in the Department in 1920. For the next thirty-seven years, Platt remained at the University of Chicago as assistant professor (1921-1927), associate professor (1927-1939), professor (1939-1957), and chairman (1949-1957) of the Department of Geography.

The central concern of Platt's work as a geographer was the intensive field study of small geographical areas that could provide data to support broader theoretical generalizations on the interrelation of landforms and human occupancy. Beginning in 1920 and continuing for more than thirty years, Platt led graduate students in his field courses on annual summer trips to Ellison Bay, Wisconsin, the upper Great Lakes region, and along the U.S.-Canadian border from Manitoba to Quebec. Conclusions drawn from these studies were distilled for presentation at the annual meetings of the Association of American Geographers and subsequently published as a regular series of articles in professional journals.

Platt followed a similar procedure in surveying Central and South American geography. On seven trips to the Caribbean and Latin America between 1922 and 1941 (each lasting from two to six months), Platt and his wife, Harriet, alternated lengthy traverses of continental regions with careful micro-studies of specific villages and farms. These studies, which eventually numbered nearly one hundred, formed the basis for Platt's monographic text, Latin America: Countrysides and United Regions (1942). In later years, Platt utilized the field methods developed in the 1920's and 1930's to examine a variety of other geographic settings: Tierra del Fuego (1948); the Dutch-German border (1952-1954); the Saarland (1958-1959); volcanic activity in Mexico, Hawaii, and Italy (1958-1960); and Pakistan (1961). In each of these projects, as in the edited collection of essays published as Field Study in American Geography (1958), Platt stressed the spatial complexity of human social and cultural patterns and warned against the conceptual dangers of environmental determinism.

While fieldwork formed the foundation of his reputation, Platt was equally well known for his interest in general geographical theory and the development of geography as a professional discipline. From 1923 to 1940, he was a regular participant in the spring field conference of American geographers first organized by Wellington Jones and Carl Sauer. He served the Association of American Geographers for many years as its treasurer (1929-1934), vice-president (1943), president (1945), and as editor of the Annals of the A.A.G. from 1961 to 1964. Outside the discipline, Platt advanced the interests of professional geography as vice-chairman of the Division of Geology and Geography of the National Research Council (1937-1939); as adviser to the Geographer of the U.S. State Department (1943); and most notably as chief of the Division of Maps at the Library of Congress (1944-1945) during Federal wartime mobilization. Even after his retirement in 1957, Platt's interest in professionalism and methodology was reflected in his organization of the Pakistan Field Geographers while a Fulbright Scholar in 1962 and his course on Geographic Thought given as a visiting professor at Indiana University in 1963.

Platt's skill as a teacher and his generous encouragement of the work of others contributed to the high regard in which he was held by both students and colleagues. Together with Harriet, he opened his home at 10820 S. Drew to successive generations of foreign and American students in geography and other fields, many of who lived with the Platts for more than a year and came to style themselves "Plattaches." The Platt home was also the scene of frequent gatherings of Department of Geography faculty, staff, students, and alumni, and of meetings with geographers from other universities. Following Platt's death in 1964, several of these friends and colleagues joined in erecting a monument in his memory in Ellison Bay, Wisconsin, on the site of his earliest contributions to field methodology and in tribute to the teacher and scholar who represented "in remarkable degree," as Richard Hartshorne has noted, "the development of American geography during his lifetime."

From the guide to the Platt, Robert S.. Papers, 1898-1980, (Special Collections Research Center, University of Chicago Library 1100 East 57th Street Chicago, Illinois 60637 U.S.A.)

Robert Swanton Platt was born in Columbus, Ohio, on December 4, 1891. He graduated from Yale in 1914, and taught at the Yale Collegiate School in Changsha, China, from 1914-1915. Platt obtained a Ph.D. from the University of Chicago in 1920. In 1918, Platt joined the faculty of the University of Chicago, teaching there until his retirement in 1957 as chairman of the department of geography. Platt died in Chicago on March 1, 1964.

Robert Swanton Platt was born in Columbus, Ohio, on December 4, 1891. He graduated from Yale University in 1914. Platt taught at the Yale Collegiate School in Changsha, China, until 1915. Platt then entered the University of Chicago and obtained his Ph.D. in 1920

Platt served in World War I as a Captain in the 82nd Infantry and in World War II with the State Department and as Chief of the Map Division at the Library of Congress. Upon discharge from the service in 1918, Platt joined the faculty of the University of Chicago and taught until his retirement in 1957 as chairman of the geography department

Platt, recognized as an expert on Latin America, had served as past president of the Association of American Geographers and as editor of its official publication, Annals, until his death on March 1, 1964.

Taken from: Yale Alumni Magazine, 1964 May.

From the guide to the Robert Swanton Platt papers, 1913-1960, 1913-1919, (Manuscripts and Archives)