Oh So Secret: Marion Frieswyk and Mapmaking at the OSS

Keywords: Cartography, World War II, OSS
Session Type: Virtual Paper Abstract
Day: Sunday
Session Start / End Time: 2/27/2022 05:20 PM (Eastern Time (US & Canada)) - 2/27/2022 06:40 PM (Eastern Time (US & Canada))
Room: Virtual 9

Abstract

When one reads about women in the OSS, spies are what come to mind, and those are the ones who have been written about, the women in jobs perceived as exciting and glamorous. But another group played an equally important role in helping win World War II. These were the mapmakers of the OSS who worked under the guidance of Arthur Robinson who at the start of the war was graduate student with a flair for cartography. They have been largely ignored . There was little glamor in creating maps with pen and ink and relief maps of plaster, but they produced thousands of maps that were used by Roosevelt and Churchill and the Joint Chiefs of Staff among others. This paper looks at the role of mapmakers in the OSS and focuses one of these women as an exemplar of their training and the jobs they performed.