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John Brinckerhoff Jackson
| John Brinckerhoff Jackson | |
|---|---|
| Personal details | |
| Born | 25 September 1909 Dinard, France |
| Died | 29 August 1996 Santa Fe, New Mexico |
| Nativity | France |
| Awards | Silver Star |
| Military service | |
| Allegiance |  United States |
| Branch |  United States Army |
| Arm / service | Cavalry |
| ASN | 0214183 |
| Rank | Captain |
| Rank at Ritchie | First Lieutenant |
| Camp Ritchie | Class 1 (27 July – 19 September 1942) |
| Specialty | IPW German |
| Unit / division | 9th Int |
| Team | IPW 10 |
|
| Silver Star |
{{Needs source}}, or explain disagreements on talk. Baseline import notes: About the data.
John Brinckerhoff Jackson (25 September 1909 – 29 August 1996) was a United States Army captain who trained in Camp Ritchie Class 1 and served in G-2 with the 9th Infantry Division, and who later became an influential writer, publisher, and teacher on the American landscape.
Biography[edit | edit source]
John Brinckerhoff Jackson, known as Brinck, was born on 25 September 1909 in Dinard, France, to American parents, and spent his early school years in Washington, D.C., and in Europe. From 1923 he attended the Institut Le Rosey in Rolle, Switzerland, where he became fluent in French and German, and he later attended Eaglebrook School, Choate, and Deerfield Academy in New England, spending summers on his uncle's farm in New Mexico. In 1928 he attended the Experimental College of the University of Wisconsin for one year, and in 1929 he entered Harvard, where he wrote for the Harvard Advocate and graduated in 1932.
After Harvard, Jackson took courses in architecture, writing, and drawing and traveled through Europe in 1934 and 1935 studying the Baroque. He wrote articles critical of Nazism for The American Review and Harper's, and his novel Saints in Summertime was published in 1938. After briefly ranching in New Mexico, he enlisted in the Army in 1940.
Jackson was among the first trainees at the Military Intelligence Training Center at Camp Ritchie, Maryland, in Class 1, remaining there for about six months. He then served in G-2 with the 9th Infantry Division in the Mediterranean, including Tunisia and Sicily, and was awarded the Silver Star. As an intelligence officer he studied maps, terrain, and the works of French geographers, experience that shaped his later view of the landscape as a product of human needs. He appears as number 4 on the Camp Ritchie First Class photo/chart and was photographed in the field (Signal Corps 237492, 245539, and 245540).
In the spring of 1951 Jackson founded the magazine Landscape, which he published and edited until 1968, and he became a noted writer, publisher, instructor, and sketch artist in landscape design, influential in broadening attention to the everyday "vernacular" landscape. From 1969 he taught landscape history as an adjunct professor at Harvard's Graduate School of Design and at the University of California, Berkeley, until the late 1970s, and afterward continued to lecture. His essays were collected in several books; A Sense of Place, a Sense of Time won the 1995 PEN prize for essays, and the Association of American Geographers named its J. B. Jackson Prize after him. He lived in La Cienega, near Santa Fe, New Mexico, and died at St. Vincent Hospital in Santa Fe on 29 August 1996, aged 86.
Research notes[edit | edit source]
- Classes/import stub Jackson, J. B. (300296) used Dabbs's ASN 0300296/300296 by collision; Dan Gross lists John Brinkerhoff Jackson under ASN 0214183. Wrong-ASN stub retired here, September 2026. Dabbs, Jack A. (0300296) remains a different person.
- 5th Army
- Appears as number 4 on the First Class photo/chart.
- Field photos: Signal Corps 237492, 245539, 245540; postwar landscape/vernacular design career (Mia Grosjean)
- Mia Grosjean gives vitals 1909–1996 (First Class chart also lists 1909–1996); infobox currently differs — review before changing
- Infobox birth/death years corrected to 1909–1996 (Mia Grosjean / First Class chart; folder title).
Gallery[edit | edit source]
-
John Brinckerhoff Jackson, Landscape as Seen by the Military (memoir excerpt, p. 133) — Internet Archive discoveringverna0000jack. -
John Brinckerhoff Jackson, Landscape as Seen by the Military (memoir excerpt, p. 134) — Internet Archive discoveringverna0000jack.
Technical record[edit | edit source]
| Field | Imported value |
|---|---|
| Approx Age at Death | 81 |
| row_source | demographics |
Timeline[edit | edit source]
- 25 September 1909 — Born in Dinard, France.
- 1923 — Entered the Institut Le Rosey, Rolle, Switzerland.
- 1928 — Attended Experimental College, University of Wisconsin (one year).
- 1932 — Graduated from Harvard.
- 1938 — Published the novel Saints in Summertime.
- 1940 — Enlisted in the U.S. Army.
- 1942 — Among first Camp Ritchie Class 1 trainees (~six months).
- 1942–1943 — G-2, 9th Infantry Division (Tunisia / Sicily); Silver Star.
- 1951 — Founded Landscape magazine (publisher and editor until 1968).
- 1969 — Began teaching landscape history at Harvard and UC Berkeley.
- 1995 — A Sense of Place, a Sense of Time won the PEN prize for essays.
- 29 August 1996 — Died in Santa Fe, New Mexico.
Sources[edit | edit source]
- Wrong-ASN duplicate Jackson, J. B. (300296) retired; this page is the canonical ASN title (September 2026).
- Internet Archive: John Brinkerhoff Jackson, Landscape as Seen by the Military (discoveringverna0000jack)
- Dan Gross research archive (miscellaneous timeline-adjacent documents; not uploaded): Grosjean book or article.doc (Mia Grosjean, “Robert L. Grosjean and the Camp Ritchie Pioneers”)
- Camp Ritchie Museum, Inc. (The Ritchie History Museum), Classes 1–31 roster data
- Dan Gross research spreadsheets, including original Excel timeline/roster work, combined with other research and records
- NARA World War II Army enlistment records (where a NARA ASN is present)
- 1940 U.S. Census (where a census match is present)
- First Class chart (Camp Ritchie: The First Class chart)
- Dan Gross, Timeline of John Brinkerhoff Jackson for Camp Ritchie (private research document; 1 source documents reviewed)
- Dan Gross, Timeline of Jackson, John Brinkerhoff for Camp Ritchie (private research files; selected non-private narrative findings; 1 source files: JOHN B. JACKSON.doc)
- Wikipedia: J. B. Jackson