Richard Hartshorne

Richard Hartshorne (pronounced harts-horn) (1899, Kittanning, Pennsylvania – 1992, Madison, Wisconsin) was a prominent American geographer. He completed his undergraduate studies at Princeton University (1920) and his doctorate at the University of Chicago (1924), then taught at the University of Minnesota (1924–40) and the University of Wisconsin (1945–70), with war-time interruption (1941–45) to establish and run the Geography Division in the branch of Research and Analysis of the Office of Strategic Services (OSS).

He was part of a key geographical debate in the 1950s over the nature of the subject. Fred K. Schaefer called for the adoption of the 'scientific method' and study of spatial laws and criticised the 'old method' promoted by Hartshorne as the 'Hartshornian orthodoxy'.

He died of cancer at his home in Madison, Wisconsin. Among his brothers was the prominent American philosopher Charles Hartshorne.