Geographical Review

• 1. Introduction

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  The Geographical Review has been asking where we are, and why it matters, since 1916. Born from an even older publication that the American Geographical Society had been printing since 1852, it is one of the longest-running geography journals in the United States. What made it survive for more than a century? Who shaped it? And what does a prize named after two women editors say about the people who kept it alive?

• 2. From Bulletin to Review

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  In 1852, the American Geographical Society launched its first academic journal, known as the Bulletin and Journal of the American Geographical Society. For more than six decades it carried the work of geographers across a rapidly changing world. By 1915, the Society decided a new form was needed. Under the direction of Isaiah Bowman, the Society's Director at the time, the Bulletin gave way to the Geographical Review. Bowman's stewardship marked a deliberate turn toward the kind of rigorous scholarly inquiry the journal would become known for. That ambition set the standard the editors who followed would spend decades trying to uphold.

• 3. The Editors Who Shaped It

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  Gladys M. Wrigley took the editorial chair in 1920 and held it for nearly three decades, stepping down in 1949. Wilma B. Fairchild then picked up where Wrigley left off, editing the journal until 1972. Together, the two women guided the Geographical Review for a combined 52 years. Douglas McManis followed later, editing from 1978 until 1995, and earned recognition for maintaining the high scholarly standards his predecessors had established. The journal is now edited by David H. Kaplan of Kent State University, and published by Routledge on behalf of the American Geographical Society as a quarterly peer-reviewed publication covering all aspects of geography.

• 4. The Wrigley-Fairchild Prize

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  The American Geographical Society established the Wrigley-Fairchild Prize in 1994, naming it directly after Gladys M. Wrigley and Wilma B. Fairchild in recognition of their combined 52 years of editorial service. The prize was designed to encourage early-career scholars publishing in the Geographical Review, and it was awarded every three years to the author of the best article by such a scholar across the three most recent volumes. Beginning in 2020, the Society changed the rhythm, moving to an annual award. That shift from a three-year cycle to a yearly one means that emerging geographers now have a more frequent opportunity to have their work recognised at the highest level the journal offers.