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Professor James T. Lemon earned his undergraduate degree in Geography at the University of Western Ontario after which he was awarded a Master of Divinity at Yale University. He subsequently enrolled as a graduate student in historical geography at the University of Wisconsin to study with Professor Andrew Clark, completing a doctoral dissertation on 18th century settlements in Pennsylvania in 1964 that he revised and published as The Best Poor Man’s Country: A Geographical Study of Early Southeastern Pennsylvania (John Hopkins University Press, 1972). This seminal work was awarded the prestigious Albert J. Beveridge prize from the American Historical Association for the best book in American history published in 1972 and remains an important landmark in early American history and geography.
Following his first teaching appointment at U.C.L.A., Professor Lemon moved to the University of Toronto in 1967 where he distinguished himself in a research and teaching program in urban historical studies for the next three decades. There he published Toronto- Since 1918: an Illustrated History (Lorimer 1985), which was recongnized as one of the finalists in the City of Toronto Book Awards of 1986. His most recent book, Liberal Dreams and Nature’s Limits: Great Cities of North America since 1600 (Oxford University Press 1996) combines a close examination of five cities: Philadelphia up to 1760, New York 1860, Chicago 1910, Los Angeles 1950 and Toronto 1975, together with an analysis of long term patterns of growth in the North American economy, technological change, the changing balance of public and private spheres of activity, and the interplay of liberal and communitarian values. In 1997 he was awarded the Canadian Association of Geographers Award for Scholarly Distinction in Geography.
The James T. Lemon Papers consist of five boxes of research note cards, one box of printed and hand drawn maps and graphs, and one folder of maps employed by Dr. Lemon in preparing his dissertation and subsequent 1972 book The Best Poor Man's Country: a Geographical Study of Early Southeastern Pennsylvania. In addition, one flat box contains maps and negative plates, a copy of Dr. Lemon's 1964 dissertation, and an atlas of 18th century Pennsylvania.
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