Dr. Jedediah Morse - Charlestown, MA
Posted by: 
Metro2
N 42° 22.324 W 071° 03.710
19T E 330238 N 4693146
This plaque honoring Dr. Jedediah Morse is located in City Square Park in Boston's Charlestown neighborhood.
Waymark Code: WMJH8W
Location: Massachusetts, United States
Date Posted: 11/18/2013
Views: 5
City Square Park has several pillars with plaques similar to this one. This oval plaque depicts Dr. Jedediah Morse as a man about 60 years old with the image of a globe behind him.
Above the depiction:
"DR. JEDEDIAH MORSE
1761 - 1826"
and below:
"Father of American Geography
EDUCATION"
Wikipedia (
visit link) informs us:
"Jedidiah Morse (August 23, 1761 – June 9, 1826) was a notable geographer whose textbooks became a staple for students in the United States. He was the father of telegraphy pioneer and painter Samuel F. B. Morse, and his textbooks earned him the sobriquet of "father of American geography."...
Morse strongly influenced the educational system of the United States. While teaching at a school for young women, he saw the need for a geography textbook oriented to the forming nation. The result was skimpy and derivative, Geography Made Easy (1784).[citation needed] He followed that with American Geography (1789), which was widely cited and copied. New editions of his school textbooks and the more weighty works often came out annually, earning him the informal title, "father of American geography." His postponed gazetteer for his work of 1784 was bested by Joseph Scott's Gazetteer of the United States in 1795. With the aid of Noah Webster and Rev. Samuel Austin, Morse published his gazetteer as Universal Geography of the United States (1797)."