UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN-MADISON ARCHIVES
ORAL HISTORY PROJECT

Interview #1511
Woodward, Rosalind “Roz”

WOODWARD, Rosalind “Roz” (1922–)
Wife of the late David Woodward (1942–2004), founding director of the History of Cartography Project
At UW: N/A
Interviewed: April 21, 2016
Interviewer: Nichole Barnes
Indexed by: Nichole Barnes 
Length: 1 hour, 17 minutes

Abstract: In this 2016 interview, Rosalind “Roz” Woodward discusses her life and relationship with her late husband David Woodward, the founding director of the History of Cartography Project. The Project, a long-term research endeavor housed in the UW geography department, explores the creation, use, significance, and cultural implications of mapmaking from antiquity to the twentieth century.

Keywords: History of Cartography Project (University of Wisconsin—Madison. Department of Geography); cartography; geography; encyclopedias; Woodward, David; Harley, J.B. (John Brian); nursing

Interview Session 1

Session 1	Keywords

00:00:03	Interviewer Nichole Barnes introduces narrator Rosalind “Roz” Woodward. 

00:00:34	Roz was born in Redding, a market town outside of London. She moved to London to do her nursing training. In London she met David Woodward. David’s father was a Methodist minister who was in charge of a chapel near where Roz worked at St. Bartholomew’s Hospital so she attended services there when possible. 

00:01:32	Roz relays how she met David: he was an x-ray porter in the hospital ward where she was stationed. He helped her move a patient once but she didn’t remember him specifically until he jogged her memory of the event at church.

00:03:44	David worked at the hospital because, due to his late summer birthday, he had an entire year to fill before entering college. During this year, he first worked at a laundry and then worked at the hospital.

00:04:46	David invited Roz to join the youth group at church and she accepted. He later asked her out via a beautiful handwritten card. David was well-known for his striking penmanship, which he learned at Harrow Grammar School, throughout his life.

00:05:18	Roz and David courted for five or six years before getting married. He went to [the University of Wales] Swansea for his bachelors. He also worked for the Ordnance Survey, a fitting job as he was a lifelong lover of maps. At university, he studied geography. 
 
00:06:24	David decided to move to the US to study cartography under Arthur H. Robinson at the University of Wisconsin. Roz stayed in England until she finished her midwifery courses. David moved to Madison for two years without Roz. The distance was difficult for their relationship. Roz describes her perceptions of David’s first years in Wisconsin.

00:08:06	David came to Madison because he had funding and he worked as a project assistant in the Cartography Lab [in Science Hall]. He planned to only do his masters in Madison and then return to the UK to start his career. David was persuaded to stay for a PhD so he and Roz got married and settled in Eagle Heights.

00:09:11	Roz talks about the challenges of moving to the US, including visa issues that she and David encountered. As a nurse with a job promise, Roz was able to move with a green card from Madison General Hospital (now Meriter). However, the hospital would not accept her credentials from the UK, and Roz had to take more courses and complete more in-hospital training. Roz discusses why she chose to abandon nursing. 

00:16:00	Roz recalls what David planned to do after he finished his graduate work.

00:17:37	David interviewed for teaching positions at Canadian universities. In the meantime, the Newberry Library was developing its collection of maps and needed a curator. Arthur H. Robinson recommended David for the job. 

00:19:29	David was hired at the Newberry and the couple moved to Chicago in the summer of 1970. Roz recalls their living situation in the city.
		
00:21:45	Roz discusses how David and J.B. Harley developed the History of Cartography Project.

00:23:48	Roz recollects her memories of Harley, and his family background.

00:27:21	Harley’s wife passed away and, coupled being unhappy at Exeter, he decided to move to US to work with the American Geographical Society collection at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee.

00:28:35	Roz and David returned to Madison in 1980 so that David could fill the post of the recently retired Robinson. Roz discusses departmental politics in geography and David’s feelings about them. 

00:34:54	David focused his energies on the Project, which quickly grew to multiple volumes. 

00:36:13	Over this period, Roz was raising the family and teaching Lamaze until they moved to Italy in 1977 for David’s research. Their daughter Rachel was killed in an accident there in April 1978. She discusses the family dynamics before and after the accident.

00:40:41	Roz didn’t return to teaching Lamaze after returning from Italy. Instead, she decided to go back to school to become a certified nurse in the US.

00:42:39	When her son started school, Roz began working nights at Meriter. 

00:44:40	In terms of the Project, Roz remembers her interactions and relationships with the staff.

00:50:14	Roz discusses the atmosphere of the Project office and how David mitigated any problems that arose.

00:53:10	Roz recalls David’s love of teaching though departmental duties like committee work frustrated him. David was also responsible for fundraising for the project—another component of academic life with which he had a love-hate relationship.

00:55:10	Harley did not fundraise for the Project. Roz discusses a disagreement that the two colleagues had over content for one of the volumes that occurred toward the end of Harley’s life. 

00:56:53	In general, David and Harley had a good working relationship, which Roz details. She recalls how overwhelmed David felt when he was left to manage the Project himself after Harley’s death.

00:59:12	David was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in November 2003 and he died in August 2004. There were signs of health issues before the diagnosis.

01:00:31	Roz discusses David’s succession plan for Project and how Matthew Edney became director. 

01:05:07	Roz remembers another of David’s main disappointment with the department: that he didn’t have many graduate students [n.b: Matthew Edney was not one of Harley’s students. Matthew was only a student at UW-Madison, attending from 1983–90. His advisor was David Woodward. See oral history interview 1515 for more information]. 

01:06:52	The Project is now in the final stretch and continuous to be generously sponsored by the National Endowment for the Humanities. 

01:07:30	Roz discusses Volume 6 and the book’s editor, Mark Monmonier. 

01:08:44	Roz finds the Project to be an amazing piece of scholarship that has attracted a loyal staff.

01:12:53	Roz discusses David’s artistic talent. She remembers the homemade cards he would make for her—one example was featured on an NPR special for Valentine’s Day. David also designed and printed all the broadsheets for the volumes. 

01:16:41	End interview. 

END OF ORAL HISTORY INTERVIEW #1511