Eratosthenes, a 3rd century B.C. chief librarian at the famous Library of Alexandria, is credited as the first person to use the word “geography.”  However, he most likely was not the first person to use the basic perspective of geography, the spatial perspective.  Early humans probably developed “mental maps” to guide them in their search for the basic necessities of life, food and water.  Landscape features, animal habitats, and protective shelter may have formed remembered elements that allowed successful survival in often harsh environments.  Actual recording of geographic elements appears early in human history in form of rudimentary maps pressed into clay tablets.  Indeed, in the development of civilization, it was important to record location for boundaries, trade, and taxation.

In Eratosthenes' day,  people already were explorating land and water areas of the Middle East and plying trade on the Mediterranean Sea as well as across vast expanses of desert.  Knowledge of how to get to some place and ultimately to return home was crucial to the sailor or trader.  While travelers were concerned with practical matters of location,  scholars involved themselves in loftier goals of measurement of Earth's size,  calculation of distances,  and creation of a geometric system for accurately defining location.  Eratosthenes is given credit for making the first accurate determination of the size of Earth.

The history of the use of the geographic or spatial perspective spans the centuries to the present, though it use and understanding by students in the past 50 years has diminished. Numerous polls and studies have highlighted the degree of geographic illiteracy among American students.  In fact, the 1988 Gallup Poll of nine nations in the world revealed that American students in the 18-24 year cohort came in at ninth place.  Even prior to that time, teachers at both the K-12 and college level recognized the lack of geographic preparation of American students and began a concerted effort to increase geographic literacy.