author
Robert DeCourcy Ward
1867–1931
A pioneering Harvard climatologist, Robert DeCourcy Ward helped bring the study of climate into conversation with everyday human life. His books combine scientific observation, geography, and a wide-ranging interest in how people adapt to the environments around them.
2 Audiobooks
Practical Exercises in Elementary Meteorology
by Robert DeCourcy Ward
Climate, considered especially in relation to man
by Robert DeCourcy Ward
About the author
Robert DeCourcy Ward (1867–1931) was an American climatologist, author, and educator who joined Harvard University’s meteorology staff in 1890 and later became a professor of climatology. He was among the first American academics to treat climatology as a distinct field of study and helped establish its place in university education.
Ward wrote Climate: Considered Especially in Relation to Man, first published in 1908, as an accessible introduction to the broad relationships between climate and human life. He also translated and expanded Julius von Hann’s Handbook of Climatology, and wrote on meteorology, geography, immigration, and the connections between people and their environments. His scientific legacy is significant, though some of his later writing reflected the restrictive immigration and eugenic ideas common among certain early twentieth-century reformers.