Mary Meader
Encyclopedia
Rachael Mary Upjohn Light Meader (April 15, 1916 – March 16, 2008) was an American aerial photographer
and explorer. Heir to the Upjohn Company fortune, she is best known in aerial circles for her 1937–1938 35,000-mile (56,000 km) flight in which she photographed unprecedented images of South America and Africa. Her African photographs were later featured in the book Focus on Africa. In her later years, she also became known in her native Kalamazoo, Michigan
, for her immense philanthropy to Western Michigan University
, the University of Michigan
, and various Kalamazoo charities.
on April 15, 1916, a grandchild of Dr. W. E. Upjohn, the founder of the pharmaceutical Upjohn Company. Meader majored in French and Spanish at Smith College
. She left the college in preparation for a marriage to the neurosurgeon Richard Upjohn Light
, a first cousin of hers. Since the two could not legally marry each other in Michigan, they moved to Maryland, where they married in 1937.
promoted these photographic flights, as they were trying to build an aerial collection. Light's idea was to travel across areas South America and Africa never been aerially photographed.
Meader took flying lessons and learned morse code
so she could become her husband's co-pilot, navigator, and radio operator. During this training, her first son, Christopher, was born. In an interview with Encore Magazine in 2006, when asked why she decided to take the journey, she replied:
The two Lights took off out of Kalamazoo in September 1937 in a Bellanca monoplane
. Its cabin lacked heat or pressurization. To survive, they were forced to breathe oxygen from a tank out wooden mouthpieces. Wearing a fur coat and boots, Meader took photographs out of a window frame.
The Lights were banned from photographing all of Central America except Guatemala, Ecuador, and Colombia, as a safety measure against the gathering of strategic knowledge. They took advantage of the Peruvian government's allowal to take pictures in the air by capturing the earliest photographs of the Nazca lines
. These were unable to distinguish from the surface, though further into the atmosphere the designs can range from simple patterns to hummingbirds and llamas.
Following their photographal of South America, the couple crossed the Atlantic Ocean before arriving in Cape Town, South Africa. While there, she took a picture of the ice dome and crater of Mount Kilimanjaro
and of the glaciars and pinnacle
s on Mount Kenya
. Her photographs include different views of native villages, urban areas, and the Egyptian pyramids, among other subjects. Every day they would awake at 4 a.m., fly until 11 a.m, then visit some of the farms, mines, and native settlements Meader planned to photograph the following day.
The couple's original plan was to fly into Asia; however, this was not accomplished due to the damaging of the plane and Meader's pregnancy with a second child, Timothy. The two returned to Kalamazoo in February 1938. In all, Meader took over 2,000 photographs on her two flights.
of the New York Times called her pictures "superb". In addition, the photos have been featured in several exhibitions over the years.
Meader was a member of the Society of Woman Geographers since 1942, whom granted her the Outstanding Achievement Award for her pioneering aerial photography in 2005. Light and Meader divorced in the early 1960s. In 1965, Meader married Edwin Meader
, a geography professor. The new couple settled on a farm outside of Kalamazoo, and according to journalist Diether Haenicke
, "for years their barn loft was one of Kalamazoo's foremost intellectual meeting places". They donated millions of dollars to Western Michigan University
, the University of Michigan
, and various Kalamazoo charities. Mrs. Meader traveled to an elementary school to teach children how to read into her 70s.
One of her largest gifts was her donation of $4 million to Western Michigan University. It resulted in the creation of the W.E. Upjohn Center for the Study of Geographical Change, after her grandfather. It digitizes maps and aerial photographs from all over the world and documents and evaluates geographic changes. She also donated $1 million gift to WMU's Waldo Library for a library renovation in the early 1990s and helped construct the W.H. Upjohn Rotunda, which was named after Meader's father. The Edwin and Mary Meader Rare Book Room was later dedicated to the library.
On November 21, 2006, Meader was awarded the title of honorary member of the American Geographical Society and was invited to sign her name on its Fliers' & Explorers' Globe. This was part of a tradition spanning back to the 1920s in which noted explorers are asked to place their signature on the Globe. Meader was the 79th to do so. Other signers of the globe include Charles Lindbergh
, Amelia Earhart
, Sir Edmund Hillary
, Robert Peary
, Richard Byrd
, and the astronauts on Apollo 8
. Meader was one of only three people to sign it twice; across East Africa and the Andes.
Mary Meader died on March 16, 2008 in Kalamazoo at the age of 91. Her husband died one year before. Survivors include sons Christopher, Timothy, and John, of Kalamazoo, and Rudolph, of Ukiah, California
; seven grandchildren; and five great-grandchildren.
Aerial photography
Aerial photography is the taking of photographs of the ground from an elevated position. The term usually refers to images in which the camera is not supported by a ground-based structure. Cameras may be hand held or mounted, and photographs may be taken by a photographer, triggered remotely or...
and explorer. Heir to the Upjohn Company fortune, she is best known in aerial circles for her 1937–1938 35,000-mile (56,000 km) flight in which she photographed unprecedented images of South America and Africa. Her African photographs were later featured in the book Focus on Africa. In her later years, she also became known in her native Kalamazoo, Michigan
Kalamazoo, Michigan
The area on which the modern city stands was once home to Native Americans of the Hopewell culture, who migrated into the area sometime before the first millennium. Evidence of their early residency remains in the form of a small mound in downtown's Bronson Park. The Hopewell civilization began to...
, for her immense philanthropy to Western Michigan University
Western Michigan University
Western Michigan University is a public university located in Kalamazoo, Michigan, United States. The university was established in 1903 by Dwight B. Waldo, and as of the Fall 2010 semester, its enrollment is 25,045....
, the University of Michigan
University of Michigan
The University of Michigan is a public research university located in Ann Arbor, Michigan in the United States. It is the state's oldest university and the flagship campus of the University of Michigan...
, and various Kalamazoo charities.
Early life
Mary Meader was born to William H. and Genevieve Upjohn in Kalamazoo, MichiganKalamazoo, Michigan
The area on which the modern city stands was once home to Native Americans of the Hopewell culture, who migrated into the area sometime before the first millennium. Evidence of their early residency remains in the form of a small mound in downtown's Bronson Park. The Hopewell civilization began to...
on April 15, 1916, a grandchild of Dr. W. E. Upjohn, the founder of the pharmaceutical Upjohn Company. Meader majored in French and Spanish at Smith College
Smith College
Smith College is a private, independent women's liberal arts college located in Northampton, Massachusetts. It is the largest member of the Seven Sisters...
. She left the college in preparation for a marriage to the neurosurgeon Richard Upjohn Light
Richard Upjohn Light
Richard Upjohn Light was a U.S. neurosurgeon, aviator, cinematographer, and former president of the American Geographical Society.-Early life:...
, a first cousin of hers. Since the two could not legally marry each other in Michigan, they moved to Maryland, where they married in 1937.
The flight
Dr. Light became famous among aviation enthusiasts due to his 1934 around-the-world flight. To celebrate his marriage to Meader, he wished to approximate the same, and Meader was happy to comply. During the planning of the trip, many points on Earth had not been captured on film from the air and the American Geographical SocietyAmerican Geographical Society
The American Geographical Society is an organization of professional geographers, founded in 1851 in New York City. Most fellows of the society are Americans, but among them have always been a significant number of fellows from around the world...
promoted these photographic flights, as they were trying to build an aerial collection. Light's idea was to travel across areas South America and Africa never been aerially photographed.
Meader took flying lessons and learned morse code
Morse code
Morse code is a method of transmitting textual information as a series of on-off tones, lights, or clicks that can be directly understood by a skilled listener or observer without special equipment...
so she could become her husband's co-pilot, navigator, and radio operator. During this training, her first son, Christopher, was born. In an interview with Encore Magazine in 2006, when asked why she decided to take the journey, she replied:
"It just seemed like a great adventure—something I wanted to do. Why? I'm not certain, other than we both knew we would be doing something that hadn't been done before."
The two Lights took off out of Kalamazoo in September 1937 in a Bellanca monoplane
Monoplane
A monoplane is a fixed-wing aircraft with one main set of wing surfaces, in contrast to a biplane or triplane. Since the late 1930s it has been the most common form for a fixed wing aircraft.-Types of monoplane:...
. Its cabin lacked heat or pressurization. To survive, they were forced to breathe oxygen from a tank out wooden mouthpieces. Wearing a fur coat and boots, Meader took photographs out of a window frame.
The Lights were banned from photographing all of Central America except Guatemala, Ecuador, and Colombia, as a safety measure against the gathering of strategic knowledge. They took advantage of the Peruvian government's allowal to take pictures in the air by capturing the earliest photographs of the Nazca lines
Nazca Lines
The Nazca Lines are a series of ancient geoglyphs located in the Nazca Desert in southern Peru. They were designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1994. The high, arid plateau stretches more than between the towns of Nazca and Palpa on the Pampas de Jumana about 400 km south of Lima...
. These were unable to distinguish from the surface, though further into the atmosphere the designs can range from simple patterns to hummingbirds and llamas.
Following their photographal of South America, the couple crossed the Atlantic Ocean before arriving in Cape Town, South Africa. While there, she took a picture of the ice dome and crater of Mount Kilimanjaro
Mount Kilimanjaro
Kilimanjaro, with its three volcanic cones, Kibo, Mawenzi, and Shira, is a dormant volcano in Kilimanjaro National Park, Tanzania and the highest mountain in Africa at above sea level .-Geology:...
and of the glaciars and pinnacle
Pinnacle
A pinnacle is an architectural ornament originally forming the cap or crown of a buttress or small turret, but afterwards used on parapets at the corners of towers and in many other situations. The pinnacle looks like a small spire...
s on Mount Kenya
Mount Kenya
Mount Kenya is the highest mountain in Kenya and the second-highest in Africa, after Kilimanjaro. The highest peaks of the mountain are Batian , Nelion and Point Lenana . Mount Kenya is located in central Kenya, just south of the equator, around north-northeast of the capital Nairobi...
. Her photographs include different views of native villages, urban areas, and the Egyptian pyramids, among other subjects. Every day they would awake at 4 a.m., fly until 11 a.m, then visit some of the farms, mines, and native settlements Meader planned to photograph the following day.
The couple's original plan was to fly into Asia; however, this was not accomplished due to the damaging of the plane and Meader's pregnancy with a second child, Timothy. The two returned to Kalamazoo in February 1938. In all, Meader took over 2,000 photographs on her two flights.
Later life and philanthropy
Three hundred twenty-three of Meader's African photos were included in Focus on Africa, a 1941 book written by her husband and published by the American Geographical Society. The book was only their second which included aerial photos; the first was Peru from the Air by George R. Johnson published in 1930. A review of the book by Mary Jobe AkeleyMary Jobe Akeley
Mary Jobe Akeley was an explorer and naturalist and the wife of Carl E. Akeley. She is famous as one of the earliest women explorers in Africa where she helped her husband hunt and photograph animals during their natural history studies...
of the New York Times called her pictures "superb". In addition, the photos have been featured in several exhibitions over the years.
Meader was a member of the Society of Woman Geographers since 1942, whom granted her the Outstanding Achievement Award for her pioneering aerial photography in 2005. Light and Meader divorced in the early 1960s. In 1965, Meader married Edwin Meader
Edwin Meader
Edwin Meader was a geography professor at Western Michigan University and philanthropist.Born in Benton Harbor, Michigan, Meader moved to Kalamazoo in 1925. He studied at Western Michigan University and the University of Michigan, from which he graduated in 1933...
, a geography professor. The new couple settled on a farm outside of Kalamazoo, and according to journalist Diether Haenicke
Diether Haenicke
Dr. Diether H. Haenicke was a president of Western Michigan University in Kalamazoo, Michigan. Haenicke had previously served as president from 1985–1998 and as an interim president from 2006–2007....
, "for years their barn loft was one of Kalamazoo's foremost intellectual meeting places". They donated millions of dollars to Western Michigan University
Western Michigan University
Western Michigan University is a public university located in Kalamazoo, Michigan, United States. The university was established in 1903 by Dwight B. Waldo, and as of the Fall 2010 semester, its enrollment is 25,045....
, the University of Michigan
University of Michigan
The University of Michigan is a public research university located in Ann Arbor, Michigan in the United States. It is the state's oldest university and the flagship campus of the University of Michigan...
, and various Kalamazoo charities. Mrs. Meader traveled to an elementary school to teach children how to read into her 70s.
One of her largest gifts was her donation of $4 million to Western Michigan University. It resulted in the creation of the W.E. Upjohn Center for the Study of Geographical Change, after her grandfather. It digitizes maps and aerial photographs from all over the world and documents and evaluates geographic changes. She also donated $1 million gift to WMU's Waldo Library for a library renovation in the early 1990s and helped construct the W.H. Upjohn Rotunda, which was named after Meader's father. The Edwin and Mary Meader Rare Book Room was later dedicated to the library.
On November 21, 2006, Meader was awarded the title of honorary member of the American Geographical Society and was invited to sign her name on its Fliers' & Explorers' Globe. This was part of a tradition spanning back to the 1920s in which noted explorers are asked to place their signature on the Globe. Meader was the 79th to do so. Other signers of the globe include Charles Lindbergh
Charles Lindbergh
Charles Augustus Lindbergh was an American aviator, author, inventor, explorer, and social activist.Lindbergh, a 25-year-old U.S...
, Amelia Earhart
Amelia Earhart
Amelia Mary Earhart was a noted American aviation pioneer and author. Earhart was the first woman to receive the U.S. Distinguished Flying Cross, awarded for becoming the first aviatrix to fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean...
, Sir Edmund Hillary
Edmund Hillary
Sir Edmund Percival Hillary, KG, ONZ, KBE , was a New Zealand mountaineer, explorer and philanthropist. On 29 May 1953 at the age of 33, he and Sherpa mountaineer Tenzing Norgay became the first climbers known to have reached the summit of Mount Everest – see Timeline of climbing Mount Everest...
, Robert Peary
Robert Peary
Robert Edwin Peary, Sr. was an American explorer who claimed to have been the first person, on April 6, 1909, to reach the geographic North Pole...
, Richard Byrd
Richard Evelyn Byrd
Rear Admiral Richard Evelyn Byrd, Jr., USN was a naval officer who specialized in feats of exploration. He was a pioneering American aviator, polar explorer, and organizer of polar logistics...
, and the astronauts on Apollo 8
Apollo 8
Apollo 8, the second manned mission in the American Apollo space program, was the first human spaceflight to leave Earth orbit; the first to be captured by and escape from the gravitational field of another celestial body; and the first crewed voyage to return to Earth from another celestial...
. Meader was one of only three people to sign it twice; across East Africa and the Andes.
Mary Meader died on March 16, 2008 in Kalamazoo at the age of 91. Her husband died one year before. Survivors include sons Christopher, Timothy, and John, of Kalamazoo, and Rudolph, of Ukiah, California
Ukiah, California
The average high temperature is 73.5 °F . Average low temperature is 46.1 °F . Temperatures reach 90 °F on an average of 65.6 days annually and 100 °F on an average of 14.4 days annually. Due to frequent low humidity, summer temperatures normally drop into the fifties at night. Freezing...
; seven grandchildren; and five great-grandchildren.
External Links
- http://collections.lib.uwm.edu/cdm4/results.php?CISORESTMP=results.php&CISOVIEWTMP=item_viewer.php&CISOMODE=thumb&CISOGRID=thumbnail,A,1;title,A,1;subjec,A,0;descri,200,0;none,A,0;20;relevancy,none,none,none,none&CISOBIB=title,A,1,N;subjec,A,0,N;descri,200,0,N;none,A,0,N;none,A,0,N;20;relevancy,none,none,none,none&CISOTHUMB=20%20%284x5%29;relevancy,none,none,none,none&CISOTITLE=20;title,none,none,none,none&CISOHIERA=20;subjec,title,none,none,none&CISOSUPPRESS=0&CISOTYPE=link&CISOOP1=exact&CISOFIELD1=title&CISOBOX1=&CISOOP2=exact&CISOFIELD2=subjec&CISOBOX2=&CISOOP3=exact&CISOFIELD3=descri&CISOBOX3=&CISOOP4=exact&CISOFIELD4=CISOSEARCHALL&CISOBOX4=Richard+U.+Light+and+Mary+%28Light%29+Meader+Collection&c=exact&CISOROOT=all1937 Mary (Light) Meader and Dr. Richard Light Photographs of Central and South America and Africa] - University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee Libraries Digital Collections