Born in Louisville, Kentucky, on January 8, 1863, Ellen Semple was privately educated. She graduated from Vassar College in 1882. She taught school in Louisville while continuing informally to read history, economics, and related topics. She received an M.A. degree from Vassar in 1891 on the basis of a written examination and then traveled to Germany to study under the anthropogeographer Friedrich Ratzel at the University of Leipzig. Although not allowed to matriculate, she attended Ratzel╒s lectures╤sitting apart from the male students╤and was permanently influenced by his methods and ideas. After a year she returned to Louisville, and in 1893 she and a sister founded the Semple Collegiate School for girls, where she taught for two years. In 1895 she returned to Leipzig for further study, after which she again settled in Louisville.
Semple╒s first published work, an article titled ╥The Influence of the Appalachian Barrier upon Colonial History,╙ appeared in the Journal of School Geography in 1897 and was followed by other similar writings. In 1903 she published American History and Its Geographic Conditions, which attracted considerable attention among professional colleagues and was adopted as a textbook by several colleges. In 1906 she was invited to lecture on anthropogeography at the University of Chicago, and she continued to lecture there for a term every other year until 1924.
Her second book, Influences of Geographic Environment, on the Basis of Ratzel╒s System of Anthropo-Geography, 1911, had been undertaken originally, at Ratzel╒s urging, to present his ideas to the English-speaking world. In its final form, however, the book╒s ideas were more Semple╒s than Ratzel╒s, and she was widely hailed by colleagues for having made a monumental contribution to the field. In 1914 the American Geographical Society awarded her its Cullum Medal. After an 18-month world tour, during which she studied methods of Japanese agriculture, Mongolian desert trade, and other geographic questions, and after a summer teaching at Oxford, she returned to work on a major study of Mediterranean geography.
She taught courses at Wellesley College in 1914╨1915, at the University of Colorado in 1916, and at Columbia University in 1918. During World War I she contributed several geographical studies to the groundwork being done under Colonel Edward M. House for President Wilson╒s eventual role in the Versailles peace conference. In 1921 she was named lecturer in the new Graduate School of Geography at Clark University, and two years later she advanced to professor of anthropogeography. She held that post for the rest of her life. Also in 1921 she was elected president of the Association of American Geographers, becoming the first woman to hold that office.
Semple╒s last book appeared in 1931 as The Geography of the Mediterranean Region: Its Relation to Ancient History. In 1932 she was awarded the gold medal of the Geographic Society of Chicago. She died in West Palm Beach, Florida, on May 8, 1932.
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