{"id":2109,"date":"2025-04-21T10:29:17","date_gmt":"2025-04-21T14:29:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.marshall.edu\/geography\/?page_id=2109"},"modified":"2025-11-02T18:38:41","modified_gmt":"2025-11-02T23:38:41","slug":"geography-department-historical-timeline","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.marshall.edu\/geography\/geography-department-historical-timeline\/","title":{"rendered":"Geography Department historical timeline"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"marsha-row mt-4 mb-4 flex flex-wrap -mx-2 lg:-mx-6  justify-start border-0 border-gray-100 first:mt-0\">\n\t\n<div class=\"columns w-full lg:w-6\/12  lg:px-6    mt-6\">\n<div class=\"\">\n\n<ul>\n<li>1837 Marhsall Academy founded; geography is a subject of instruction.<\/li>\n<li>1867 Marshall College designated by the Legislature as The State Normal School; geography remains part of teacher training.<\/li>\n<li>1911 Geography Department formed with Frances Burgess as department head (picture at right).<\/li>\n<li>1914 Geography Department administratively part of the Teacher&#8217;s College.<\/li>\n<li>1924 First bachelor&#8217;s degree in teaching with a &#8220;major&#8221; in geography awarded to Sallie Bay Smith.<\/li>\n<li>1925 Faculty expands to two full-time members.<\/li>\n<li>1928 Geology department formed out of and separate from geography.<\/li>\n<li>1928-1930 Faculty expands to three full-time members; first faculty member with a doctorate, Dr. Moina Prator; annual enrollment in geography courses reaches nearly 1800.<\/li>\n<li>1938 First graduate geography course offered.<\/li>\n<li>1942-1943 Geography Department trains 400 men for the 47th Army Air Force College Training program.<\/li>\n<li>1948 Dr. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.marshall.edu\/geography\/faculty-staff\/clagg\/\">Sam Clagg<\/a> becomes a full-time faculty member.<\/li>\n<li>1950 First master&#8217;s degrees in geography awarded; first master&#8217;s thesis.<\/li>\n<li>1955 Students organize the Beta Nu chapter of Gamma Theta Upsilon, the national professional fraternity in geography.<\/li>\n<li>1956 First bachelor&#8217;s degrees in geography as a stand-alone undergraduate major awarded.<\/li>\n<li>1969-1973 Faculty expands to five full-time members.<\/li>\n<li>1975 The Geography Department moves to Harris Hall.<\/li>\n<li>1977 First urban\/regional planning courses offered.<\/li>\n<li>1985 The Geography Department moves from the Teacher&#8217;s College (aka College of Education) to the College of Liberal Arts .<\/li>\n<li>1994 Faculty expands to six full-time members.<\/li>\n<li>2003 Sam E. Clagg GIS teaching lab opens<\/li>\n<li>2004 First online course offerings<\/li>\n<li>2007 First meteorology course offered.<\/li>\n<li>2007 GIScience certificates created.<\/li>\n<li>2015 First 100% online bachelor&#8217;s degree in geography awarded.<\/li>\n<li>2019 First 100% online master&#8217;s degrees in geography awarded.<\/li>\n<li>2021-2022 A record 16 bachelor&#8217;s degrees in geography awarded; first 100% online bachelor&#8217;s degree to an international student awarded.<\/li>\n<li>2022-2023 A record 19 master&#8217;s degrees in geography awarded; first 100% online master&#8217;s degree to an international student awarded.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n<div class=\"columns w-full lg:w-6\/12  lg:px-6    mt-6\">\n<div class=\"\">\n\n<figure id=\"attachment_2113\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-2113\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.marshall.edu\/geography\/files\/Burgess2.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-2113\" src=\"http:\/\/www.marshall.edu\/geography\/files\/Burgess2-204x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"204\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.marshall.edu\/geography\/files\/Burgess2-204x300.jpg 204w, https:\/\/www.marshall.edu\/geography\/files\/Burgess2.jpg 407w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 204px) 100vw, 204px\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-2113\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Miss Fannie Burgess, first department head<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<div class=\"mceTemp\"><\/div>\n\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<\/div>\n\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":407,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-2109","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.marshall.edu\/geography\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2109","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.marshall.edu\/geography\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.marshall.edu\/geography\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.marshall.edu\/geography\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/407"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.marshall.edu\/geography\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2109"}],"version-history":[{"count":13,"href":"https:\/\/www.marshall.edu\/geography\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2109\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2193,"href":"https:\/\/www.marshall.edu\/geography\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2109\/revisions\/2193"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.marshall.edu\/geography\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2109"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}