Richard Edes Harrison Biography
Richard Edes Harrison (March 11, 1901- January 5, 1994) was an American scientific illustrator and cartographer. He was the house cartographer of Fortune and a consultant at Life for almost two decades. He played a key role in "challenging cartographic perspectives and attempting to change spatial thinking on the everyday level during America’s rise to superpower status"

Harrison came to cartography "by chance" in 1932 when a friend asked him to momentarily replace a mapmaker working for Fortune.[4] During World War II, his cartographic visualizations became very popular. In his maps and atlases, Harrison argued for examining geographic issues from multiple perspectives and breaking from conventions, such as overuse of the Mercator projection, and always placing north at the top of the map

Harrison always considered himself more of an artist than a cartographer, but he had a highly successful career making maps for Fortune and Time. He was from 1936 to 1938 on the staff of Fortune.