J B Jackson - vernacular geographer
From an appreciation of Barry Lopez's work by Robert MacFarlane came a mention of J. B. (Brinck) Jackson.
He was someone I could not remember hearing about before, although some of his books looked familiar when I looked further:
"American vernacular landscape, J.B. Jackson, whose essays and lectures were so influential in dignifying and directing scholarly attention onto gas stations, lawns, woodlots, road-layouts, ballparks, and other everyday human structures as part of “the full imprint of human societies on the landscape,” in Jackson’s phrase. Jackson was a vocal critic of the exclusionary wilderness aesthetic as it existed in much mainstream North American conservation and (dread phrase) “nature writing.”
'…a landscape is not a natural feature of the environment but a ‘synthetic’ space, a manmade system of spaces superimposed on the face of the land, functioning and evolving.... a composition of man-modified spaces to serve as infrastructure or background for our collective existence; and if ‘background’ seems inappropriately modest we should remember that in our modern sense of the word it means that which underscores not only our identity and presence but also our history... a landscape is thus a space deliberately created to speed up or slow down the process of nature...it represents man taking upon himself the role of time'...1"
1. John Brinckerhoff Jackson, “The Word Itself” (1976–1984) in Discovering the Vernacular Landscape (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1984): 8.
"American vernacular landscape, J.B. Jackson, whose essays and lectures were so influential in dignifying and directing scholarly attention onto gas stations, lawns, woodlots, road-layouts, ballparks, and other everyday human structures as part of “the full imprint of human societies on the landscape,” in Jackson’s phrase. Jackson was a vocal critic of the exclusionary wilderness aesthetic as it existed in much mainstream North American conservation and (dread phrase) “nature writing.”
He apparently focussed on writing and research about elements in the landscape that were defiantly prosaic in nature, and were those seen and perhaps overlooked through their ubiquity and ordinariness.
He died in 1996, and his obituary was published in the New York Times. Which said:
Cultural geographer, John Brinckerhoff (J.B.) Jackson was known for his historical and theoretical ideas on landscape studies.
He died in 1996, and his obituary was published in the New York Times. Which said:
Cultural geographer, John Brinckerhoff (J.B.) Jackson was known for his historical and theoretical ideas on landscape studies.
He lived from 1909-1996 and had a home in La Cienega, New Mexico, approximately 20 miles south of Santa Fe. After graduating from Harvard skeptical of academia, he served in World War II as a field intelligence officer. There he studied the landscape of Europe through extensive aerial imagery, mapping, and sketches to keep his troops safe.
There were quite a few former GA Presidents who worked in a similar field during the Second World War using their geographical skills to interpret landscape imagery to assist the war effort in their own specific way. I wrote about them on the GA Presidents blog.
Jackson analysed the way that people used the land, sparking his unique approach to looking at landscape.
The Association of American Geographers established a Jackson Prize, to "reward American geographers who write books about the United States which convey the insights of professional geography in language that is interesting and attractive to a lay audience."
Jackson drawing, American Southwest, 1947 Photograph of drawing by J.B. Jackson, Collection of J.B, Jackson Pictorial Materials from Various Sources, 1940-1990, 000-866-1-T2-01.
The Association of American Geographers established a Jackson Prize, to "reward American geographers who write books about the United States which convey the insights of professional geography in language that is interesting and attractive to a lay audience."
He was also an artist and sketcher as he travelled.
To finish, with, a suitable quote from Jackson himself on the value of landscapes
'…a landscape is not a natural feature of the environment but a ‘synthetic’ space, a manmade system of spaces superimposed on the face of the land, functioning and evolving.... a composition of man-modified spaces to serve as infrastructure or background for our collective existence; and if ‘background’ seems inappropriately modest we should remember that in our modern sense of the word it means that which underscores not only our identity and presence but also our history... a landscape is thus a space deliberately created to speed up or slow down the process of nature...it represents man taking upon himself the role of time'...1"
1. John Brinckerhoff Jackson, “The Word Itself” (1976–1984) in Discovering the Vernacular Landscape (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1984): 8.
And a few screenshots:
Some of his books are available on the Internet archive / Scribd. There are also collections of his essays available.
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