Earle, Carville (1942–2003)

Carville Earle was a historical geographer whose primary goal was to answer vexing historical questions of the American past using the tools and methods of geography. Earle's research spanned from colonial Jamestown to the 21st-century United States. He often referred to himself as a geographical historian practicing geographical history. He was a pioneer in using geographic information systems in the cause of answering problems of the past with the Historical United States County Boundary Files, which allowed scholars to map and analyze historical data at the county level. Earle also served as editor of the Annals of the Association of American Geographers from 1994 to 1996.

Earle's major contributions to historical geography emerged from his insistence that historical geographers were social scientists with a focus on ...