Around the World

The appointment of Professor Henry C. Darby as a visiting professor of Geography for the Spring term of 1959 is a long-needed step in the right direction. However, the appointment of only one Professor of Geography will not suffice; it is distressing to note that Harvard is the only major American or European university without a geography department.

It is to be hoped that Professor Darby's consultations with the committee studying geography at Harvard will result in at least as strong a statement as that made by the faculty committee in 1950 which recommended the establishment of a four-chair department of Geography. The University, considering the value of geography both as a study in itself and in connection with history, economics, anthropology, and regional studies should certainly establish a geography department.

Until such a department is established, it is encouraging to note that there has been a realization of the fact that geography should not be affiliated with the Department of Geology. While the original emphasis of geographic study was physical, cultural geography is now emerging as the most important area in the field. It is appropriate that until geography has its own department, it should be connected with one of the social sciences. But this dependence should not continue for very long: the University suffers as long as it does not have a department of Geography.