Millie the Mapper | Worlds Revealed

In honor of Women’s History Month this March, Worlds Revealed is featuring weekly posts about the history of women in geography and cartography. You can click on the “Women’s History Month” category see all related posts.

We’ve all heard the story of Rosie the Riveter: women, from a wide variety of backgrounds, who entered the workforce during World War II to aid the American war effort. From Lakehurst to Oak Ridge to Willow Run, women became involved in an enormous range of jobs pertaining to wartime manufacturing, production, and preparation. Some of these women also became involved in drafting, photogrammetry, computing, and mapping. Called “Millie the Mappers” or “Military Mapping Maidens” these women played an integral role in producing accurate and up-to-date maps used by various branches of the military and government during World War II.

Women plotting aircraft positions. 1943. Farm Security Administration - Office of War Information Photograph Collection, Library of Congress. — Women plotting aircraft positions. 1943. Farm Security Administration – Office of War Information Photograph Collection, Library of Congress.

In 1941, the 77th Congress signed a bill that allocated additional funding to map areas around the globe that the Secretary of War deemed “strategic.” The federal government found their existing map coverage to be inadequate for the war and created training programs to address their cartographic needs. Over the course of the war, thousands of women became involved in cartographic activities in both professional and subprofessional levels.

There were several college-grade courses recommended for students seeking to become involved with military mapping through the Engineering, Science, and Management War Training (ESMWT) program. Completing these classes qualified a student for the Federal Civil Service examination and by the middle of 1942, the Government had approved of 99 classes related to topographic mapping at 57 institutions in 30 States across the country. Coursework could consist of map drafting, surveying instruments, planetable surveying field procedures, photogrammetry, map editing, and map production.

Army Signal Corps training in Aberdeen, Maryland. 1942. From left to right: Vivian Johnston Goddin, Katherine Novotny, Dene Miller. Library of Congress, Geography & Map Division.

In 2012, Nancy Goddin Miller, a daughter of a “Millie the Mapper” donated a collection of her mother’s drawings and exercises to the Geography & Map Division, as well as her grandfathers field surveying instruments. Her mother, Vivian Virginia Johnston Goddin, p