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Finding Aid

Byron Emery Papers, ca. 1956-1986

UM-93

Size: 1 linear foot

Provenance: Gift of Kathleen Emery, 2006

Access: Open without restriction

Related Collections:  

Processing Note:

Condition: Good

Copyright: The literary rights to this collection are assumed to rest with the person(s) responsible for the production of the particular items within the collection, or with their heirs or assigns.  Researchers bear full legal responsibility for the acquisition to publish from any part of said collection per Title 17, United States Code.  The Ward M. Canaday Center for Special Collections may reserve the right to intervene as intermediary at its own discretion.

Completed by: Peggy Zdila

Historical/Biographical Sketch

Byron E. Emery, Emeritus Professor of Geography, University of Toledo, was born in Kittery Point, Maine on December 31, 1928.  He taught at the university for 23 years (1963-1986). Emery retained a strong love of New England culture and places, as evidenced by many of his memberships and interests. Emery was the son of Earl E. and Doris E. (Phillips) Emery, and graduated from Horace Mitchell High School in Kittery Point in 1942. He enlisted in the Army in 1946 and served under Douglas MacArthur in the occupation of Japan. As a civilian, Emery earned both his B.A. (1954) and M.A. (1956) in Geography from the University of Hawaii. He earned his PhD. from the University of Michigan in 1963.

Emery began his teaching career as an instructor in Physical Geography for the Army while stationed in Hawaii in 1954. After graduation from the University of Michigan, he was appointed Assistant Professor of Geography at Eastern Michigan University, and Lecturer at the University of Michigan-Detroit Center. His first post at University of Toledo was as Assistant Professor of Geography, and Chairman of the Department of Geography in 1963, and he filled both roles through 1969. During 1970, he was made Professor, and remained as Department Chairman until 1971, when he was appointed Director of the recently created University College. He held that post until 1974, after which he remained Professor of Geography until his retirement in 1986. He was a member of the UT Graduate Faculty.

Emery was active in professional pursuits such as acting as Planning Consultant and sometimes as Senior Principal Planner for Toledo-Lucas County Plan Commissions from 1964-1966. He served as a local consultant on cartography, civil service positions, economic geography, demographics, and other topics.

His publications included academic papers, book reviews for scholarly journals, and several reports on economic and population date of the Greater Toledo area. He also edited several maps.

His academic interests included many areas of geography, such as: political, urban, land use planning and economic development, world geography and cartography.

He was elected a fellow of the Explorers Club in 1975, and a fellow of the Ohio Academy of Science in 1970.

His memberships included the Law of the Sea Institute, the American Planning Association, Phi Kappa Phi, Kittery Historical and Naval Museum, the Decorative Arts Society, and The Friends of the University of Toledo Libraries. He was a lifelong member of the American Morgan Horse Association.

Emery’s interests included his collections of rare geography books, and his woodcarvings by renowned 19th and early 20th century carver John Haley Bellamy who also lived in Kittery Point. He was an avid horseman; a Morgan horse breeder and practitioner of the equine arts of both dressage and driving.

Emery was a friend of Toledo industrialist Edward Lamb, who shared Emery’s interests in international affairs, the United Nations, and Soviet studies. Emery was personally acquainted with fellow New England native R. Buckminster Fuller, the architect and inventor, and arranged his visit to the University of Toledo in 1974. Emery and Fuller were both acquainted with author and lecturer Earl Parker Hanson, who was active in the Explorers club, and wrote works primarily on the Caribbean and South America.

Scope and Content Note

The Byron E. Emery Collection is arranged in two series. The professional materials series contains his: Master of Arts Thesis, University of Hawaii, Intensification of Settlement and Land Utilization Since 1930 In Manoa Valley, Honolulu, June 1956; Ph. D. Dissertation, University of Michigan, Regional Integration and Disintegration in the Regional Caribbean Area. Also in the series are the 1965 reports Toledo Regional Plan Area: An Economic Forecast, and Toledo Regional Plan Area: A Population Projection; thesis and dissertation preparation materials including graphics, correspondence, press releases, clippings, photocopies and flyers relating to Emery’s work at the university, his organization memberships, a copy of Life Presents R. Buckminster Fuller’s Dymaxion World, and a manuscript of Edward Lamb’s book BAM: Beyond Baikal.  The themes of material in this series include world peace, communism, the Red Scare, and the U.S.S.R.

The photography series contains photos of the relief globe project, R. Buckminster Fuller’s visit to the University of Toledo campus in April 1974, John Haley Bellamy carvings, the Levis Square flag raising, Edward Lamb family photos, and international organization activities.