Women Cartographers of WWII
Marion Friewyk
Marion A. Frieswyk (1921 – 2021) was the first female intelligence cartographer for the Map Division’s Cartography Section of the CIA and former member of the Office of Strategic Services. She played a key role in creating cartographic resources for strategic military operations during WWII.
Bea McPherson
Originally from Canton, Ohio, Bea (Shaheen) McPherson, attended Kent State University from 1940 to 1943. As a senior elementary education and geography major, McPherson was recruited by her geography professor, Edna Eisen to receive special training. Upon graduation McPherson reported for work to the Service in Washington, D.C., and she continued to work as a mapmaker for the remainder of World War II. This group of women eventually became known as the Military Mapmaking Corps, the Military Mapmaking Maids or the 3M Girls.
Evelyn Pruitt
Evelyn Lord Pruitt (1918 – 2000) was an American geographer. She was editor of The Professional Geographer, and is known for developing the field of remote sensing and coining the term “remote sensing”
Edna Eisen
Edna Eisen (1895 -1960) Born in Milwaukee, WI, Professor Eisen authored several geographical studies. One of these, ” Educational Land Use in Lake County, Ohio,” was published as her doctoral dissertation in 1948. She was the ninth woman ever to receive a doctor of philosophy degree in geography from the University of Chicago, and one of the few women in the country with the degree. Professor Eisen taught the 60 hour cartography program that Bea (Shaheen) McPherson took at Kent State. Professor Eisen was a contributor to the Golden Book Encyclopedia for grade school children, a contributor to the Compton’s Picture Encyclopedia and World Book Cyclopedia and a consultant for Cram Map company. She was also a member of the Association of American Geographers, National Council of Geography Teachers.
Edith Putnam Parker
Edith Putnam Parker (1886-1961). Always devoted to teaching geography to children, in the 1920’s and 1930’s she was author of three geographies. She was then recruited by the US War Department to create the 60 hour cartography program used by the 3M girls. Her distinguished career in American geography ended on October of 1961. On January 7, 2008 she was posthumously honored with a Distinguished Service Award in Geographic Education
Elisabeth May Herlihy
Elisabeth May Herlihy (1880-1953). Elisabeth May Herlihy, daughter of Irish Famine Era immigrants and the woman who quietly, but confidently shaped every major planning initiative of the first half of twentieth century Boston.