Richard Stephenson

1931 - 2013

Richard W. Stephenson died September 25, 2013 at age 82.
Dick Stephenson retired (with 40 years service) from the Library of Congress in January 1992 as the Geography and Map Division’s Specialist in American Cartographic History. He was present at the organizing meeting of the Washington Map Society (WMS) on May 2, 1979 and served as the organization’s fourth president in 1982-1983. Dick was the author or editor of numerous articles and publications including Civil War Maps (1989), “A Plan Whol[l]y New: Pierre Charles L’Enfant’s Plan of the City of Washington” (1993), and with Marianne M. McKee, Virginia in Maps: Four Centuries of Settlement, Growth, and Development (2000). His most recent article for The Portolan was “A City in Transition: Mapping the Nation’s Capital from Civil War to the Creation of a Comprehensive Plan, 1861-1902” (issue 72 – Fall 2008). Dick’s article “General Lee’s Forgotten Mapmaker:  Major Albert H. Campbell and the Department Of Northern Virginia’s Topographical Department” appeared in Issue 60 (Fall 2004).  He often reviewed books for The Portolan:  Torn in Two (issue 81 – Fall 2011), Mapping the World: An Illustrated History of Cartography (issue 65 – Spring 2006), and The Mismapping of America (issue 58 – Winter 2003-2004). His reminiscences of former G&M Chief Walter Ristow in issue 66 (Fall 2006) included much about his own service at the G&M Division. In addition Dick delivered numerous presentations before the Washington Map Society, the Society for the History of Discoveries, and other sister groups.

Courtesy Washington Map Society, www.washmapsociety.org.

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