He taught at Euphrates College, Turkey (1897–1901); accompanied the Pumpelly (1903) and Barrett (1905–1906) expeditions to central Asia; and wrote of his Asian experiences in Explorations in Turkestan (1905) and The Pulse of Asia (1907). He taught geography at Yale (1907–1915) and from 1917 was a research associate there, devoting his time chiefly to climatic and anthropogeographic studies. He was the 1916 recipient of the Elisha Kent Kane Gold Medal from the Geographical Society of Philadelphia.
In 1909, Huntington led the Yale Expedition to Palestine. It was his mission to determine "step by step the process by which geologic structure, topographic form, and the present and past nature of the climate have shaped man's progress, moulded his history; and thus played an incalculable part in the development of a system of thought which could scarcely have arisen under any other physical circumstances."[3]
During the Progressive Era, Huntington expressed concern about immigration and the race mixing. He claimed that liberal immigration policy would lead to the "highest racial values" being "irrevocably swamped by those of lower calibre."[4]
"Climatic Change and Agricultural Exhaustion as Elements in the Fall of Rome," Quarterly Journal of Economics Vol. 31, No. 2 (Feb., 1917), pp. 173–208 in JSTOR
"Agricultural Productivity and Pressure of Population," Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science Vol. 198, Present International Tensions (Jul., 1938), pp. 73–92 in JSTOR
Fonaroff, L. Schuyler. "Was Huntington Right about Human Nutrition?" Annals of the Association of American Geographers Vol. 55, No. 3 (Sep., 1965), pp. 365–376 in JSTOR
Martin, Geoffrey J. Ellsworth Huntington: His Life and Thought (1973)
Spate, O. H. K. "Ellsworth Huntington: A Geographical Giant: Review," Geographical Journal Vol. 140, No. 1 (Feb., 1974), pp. 117–119 in JSTOR