Deb Boyer | Azavea Atlas

Articles by Deb Boyer

GIS and the Humanities

Jul 29, 2010

Mapping Literature

In May 2010, I was fortunate to attend THATCamp 2010, the Humanities and Technology Camp hosted by the Center for History and New Media at George Mason University. Amidst all the discussion of digital humanities, text mining, linked data, and open source software were several great sessions on geolocation, mapping historic sites, and the use of place and space in humanities scholarship.

Many of these conversations focused on the use of geography in the study of history. From historic photographs to maps to artifacts used at a particular place, both non-profit organizations and the academy have embraced geography as a way to connect the past to the present. Azavea has worked on several projects that use GIS to help understand and visualize the past including PhillyHistory.org and AfricaMap.

In one session, however, we were encouraged to look beyond spatial analysis and history. What about applying GIS technology to other fields in the humanities such as literature? Place has long been recognized as a great influence upon many writers and their work. Flannery O’Conner, William Faulkner, and Zora Neale Hurston are inextricably linked with the American South just as Dickens is forever associated with London and Mark Twain with the Mississippi River. Other writers create their own locations as varied as Tolkien’s Middle Earth or Jonathan Swift’s Lilliput. Travel writers, journalists, and non-fiction authors also help tell the stories of a place and describe the culture, people, and events that are intimately connected to a region.

With geography so interwoven with literature, it seems like GIS could be a perfect way to help further analyze and understand both fiction and non-fiction. A little bit of online research led me to some great literary GIS projects.

A W.E.B. DuBois map (c. 1896) of Philadelphia's 7th ward.

Mapping the DuBois Philadelphia Negro – Led by Dr. Amy Hillier in the School of Design at the University of Pennsylvania, the Mapping DuBois project uses GIS technology and archival data to depict the demographics of the Seventh Ward of Philadelphia in 1899 when W.E.B. Du Bois surveyed the area as part of his book, The Philadelphia Negro. Azavea assisted with the GIS technology for the project.

Literary and Cultural Heritage Map of Pennsylvania – Developed by the Pennsylvania Center for the Book, this literary map shows the authors and works associated with counties across Pennsylvania. Clicking on a county provides additional information about the authors as well as links to books, newspapers, and maps related to that area.

The Map of Early Modern London – Using the Agas map (circa 1560), visitors can gain a better understanding of the relationship between the geography and history of London and how those factors influenced Renaissance theater in the city.

Haverford College Department of Classics – Want a better understanding of the geography of Homer’s poems? View locations associated with Homer’s ships using Google Earth.

Google Lit Trips – Developed as part of the Google Certified Teachers program, Google Lit Trips enables teachers and students to view locations associated with certain books by downloading kmz files for use in Google Earth. Works range from Make Way for Ducklings by Robert McCloskey to Buddenbrooks by Thomas Mann.

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Historic Maps

Feb 10, 2010

Current Exhibitions of Historic Maps

By Deb Boyer

We’re obviously pretty fond of digital maps and technology in general. However, sometimes you just have to marvel at the beautiful maps and images created by cartographers hundreds of years ago. With brushes, compasses, sextants, and not a computer in sight, they surveyed and recreated the physical world as they knew it.

Many of these historic maps have been photographed or digitized and are available online. In terms of maps of Philadelphia where Azavea is based, both the Hexamer and Locher maps on PhillyHistory.org and the maps available at the Greater Philadelphia GeoHistory Network give great insight into how the city has changed and developed.

There are some maps though that just have to be seen in person. This Spring, a number of museums and libraries are displaying beautiful historic maps as part of various exhibitions. If you have a chance, it just might be worth tearing yourself away from the computer for awhile to marvel at the talents of cartographers throughout the centuries.

The Matteo Ricci World Map (1602) at the Library of Congress: On exhibit for the first time in North America, this 5.5 feet tall by 12.5 feet wide map displays China at the center of the world and was also the first Chinese map to show the Americas. More information is available in the New York Times review of the exhibition.

Mapping New York’s Shoreline, 1609-2009 at the New York Public Library: An exhibition of maps, atlases, prints, and other items tells the story of New York’s waterways and harbors over the course of four centuries.

Mapping Discoveries in the Heavens and Controversies on Earth from the Harvard Map Collection: Maps are not always of land. This exhibition explores Galileo’s celestial observations and their impact on the world.

Envisioning the World currently on view at the Princeton University Library: A traveling exhibition of rare world maps from the collection of Henry Wendt, a Princeton alumnus.

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Historic Maps

Sep 15, 2009

Using Maps as Historical Research Tools

By Deb Boyer

In their quest to discover primary source documents, historians will scour special collections libraries, genealogists will read through roll after roll of microfilm, and students will keyword search through centuries old books now digitized and easily available online. While historical research may be getting much easier with the advent of dozens of digitization projects and online resources, one type of research tool often remains overlooked – maps.

Perhaps, to many people, it just seems easier to find information in documents. You locate the papers related to your topic and then read the list of names or the journal entries or the ledgers from a business. It can take a bit more time to figure out what exactly you are looking at with a map and how the street names, businesses, railroad lines, parcel outlines, and other features can assist with research. With a little effort (and online tools in some cases), maps can serve as an excellent source of historical information.

Hexamer & Locher Plate 62A, 1859

Maps provide great visual documentation for how a neighborhood, city, or other geographic area has changed over time. For a recent article on the history of Callowhill, the neighborhood in Philadelphia where Azavea is located, I turned to some excellent online maps. The Hexamer & Locher maps on PhillyHistory.org show that Callowhill was filled with small rowhouses by 1859, verifying other sources that list Callowhill as an area filled with the homes of factory workers and their families. To go beyond simply looking at land parcels and find out more specific information, I used several of the many, many maps available on the Greater Philadelphia GeoHistory Network website. The site features an extremely helpful Interactive Maps Viewer that allows users to layer historic maps on top of each other, adjust the transparency levels, and apply a current streets overlay to compare past geography to the present landscape.

Thanks to the 1895 Philadelphia Atlas developed by George and Walter Bromley, I was able to discover the names of businesses that operated in Callowhill. The Standard Iron Foundry, the Knickerbocker Ice Co., the Hoopes & Townsend Nut and Bolt Works, the First Regiment Armory, Monroe School, and dozens of other buildings are clearly labeled and outlined on the map. By comparing this map with the 1942 and 1962 Philadelphia Land Use maps, it was possible to see how the neighborhood changed over time as businesses moved, changed names, declined, and grew.

1895 Philadelphia Atlas

It seems obvious that maps provide insight into the history of a neighborhood. With a little analysis, their usefulness can extend to other research topics as well. A genealogist may locate a distant ancestor in a census or city directory from the late 1800s. If that census or directory provides an address, the genealogist can locate their ancestor’s house on a map and discover entirely new research possibilities. Did their ancestor attend the school two blocks over? Did they settle in the neighborhood because they worked at the nearby factory? Or did they use the trolley that ran in front of their house to commute to a job in another neighborhood? Maps also serve as tool for historians. Why did factories choose to start up businesses in this area? How did railroad lines and other construction projects affect the area? Why did people choose to live here? Did they have a choice or were they influenced by socioeconomic or cultural pressures?

At Azavea, we’re obviously convinced of the value of maps. We’re also doing our part to help make information about historic maps and streets more accessible. In addition to making the Hexamer & Locher maps available on PhillyHistory.org, one of our research projects includes development of a historic geocoder which would enable users to geocode historic addresses that may not currently exist under the same name.

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Historic Maps

Aug 18, 2009

Mappa Mundi: Mapping the Medieval World

By Deb Boyer

We spend a lot of time ensuring that we have the most up-to-date and accurate geographic information. Whether it’s working on the Unified Land Records System to properly identify real estate parcels in Philadelphia or checking for any changes to political district boundaries for use in Cicero, we obviously need to have the most current data available.

Sometimes, though, it’s fun to forget about modern cartography for a minute and check out maps from the past – many of which differ radically from how we think of maps. A mappa mundi (Latin for cloth of the world) is a general term for a type of Medieval European world map. There are several kinds of mappae mundi and the features on the maps vary widely. Some illustrate only the world as it was known at the time while others include unknown or unidentified lands as well as locations from classical history, legend, or the Bible. The maps were not used as navigation tools but instead served as visual histories, teaching objects, and illustrations of religious or philosophic ways of understanding the world and what was seen as God’s creation.

The Hereford Mappa Mundi from Wikimedia Commons.

Often circular in shape, the maps usually depicted a familiar, known geographic feature in the center with additional locations expanding outward. The Hereford Mappa Mundi, the largest medieval map still in existence at around 5 feet high and 4 feet 6 inches wide, features Jerusalem at the center with Egypt to the right, the Ganges River near the top of the map, and England in the lower left corner. The Sawley Map, a world map drawn circa 1190 and currently on display at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, also places Jerusalem and the Mediterranean Sea at the center of the circle and includes Rome, Constantinople, Alexandria and other cities in the surrounding area. Images of angels encircle the map and Paradise is shown at the very top of the world. These maps might not be very useful for traveling, but they do serve as wonderful resources for information on medieval thought, education, culture, and the arts.

While we don’t have any spare mappae mundi hanging around the office, Azavea has done work with historic maps before. PhillyHistory.org contains the Hexamer & Locher maps, which date from 1858-1860, and the AfricaMap project features several maps from the 17^th and 18^th centuries, including one with great illustrations of sea monsters.

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Sajara

Jun 22, 2009

PhillyHistory.org, a Sajara Implementation, Now Available on Flickr

By Deb Boyer

PhillyHistory.org, an implementation of Sajara – Azavea’s web-based geographic digital asset management software, recently announced that it has made a select number of historic images from its database available on Flickr. The hand-selected photos include some of the oldest and most popular images from the City Archives and provide a beautiful visual history of Philadelphia’s neighborhoods and streets.

Visit the PhillyHistory.org photostream at http://www.flickr.com/photos/phillyhistory to view and comment on the images. For more information about PhillyHistory.org on Flickr, visit the PhillyHistory.org blog.

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May 14, 2009

Using Google Street View in Sajara

By Deb Boyer

Google Street View has been available for a few months now on Muralfarm.org, an implementation of Sajara, Azavea’s web-based geographic digital asset management software, which enables users to search and view the murals produced and maintained by the City of Philadelphia Mural Arts Program. Included in the thumbnails of photographs for each mural is a white box labeled “Google Street View.” Clicking on this link enables viewers to see the mural as it’s visible to someone walking down the street. It’s a great chance to view the mural in the context of its larger streetscape and neighborhood.

We had such a positive reaction to Street View on Muralfarm.org that we decided to add the feature to PhillyHistory.org, another Sajara implementation that shows the beautiful historic images from the Philadelphia City Archives. We figured it would be a useful way to compare past architecture to the present landscape and tell more of the story of the city’s past.

The results provide an exciting visual demonstration of how the city has changed and developed over the course of its history. A 1914 photo shows a few people standing outside the Head House Market near 2nd and Pine Streets. The present-day Street View for that location shows the same market house with a few changes. A photo from 1918 of the intersection of Arch Street and 10th Street includes several businesses and a sign stretched across the street proclaiming that “Food Will Win the War.” The same intersection in 2009 is still home to many businesses and restaurants. Instead of a war-time sign, an ornate Chinese gate extends across the street, reflecting the ancestry of many residents of an area which now makes up part of the Chinatown neighborhood.

Arch Street Looking West from 10th Street, 1918

Arch Street Looking West from 10th Street, 2009

In the midst of the Street View awesomeness, there was one tiny, frustrating issue. The Street View is set to automatically show whatever Google has established as the default view for that address or intersection. This means that it’s sometimes necessary to navigate up and down the street or pan the view in order to see the mural or the location that matches the historic photo. However, thanks to the work of Carissa, one of our software developers, we’ve found a way around that problem. Carissa built an administrative tool that lets us set the angle and viewpoint of the Street View for any asset. We simply adjust the angle until we have the perfect view and then click “Save” to set that view as the default. Now, whenever the Street View is opened for that asset, it will show the perfect angle with no panning or navigating necessary. To find out more of the technical details of how Carissa solved the problem, read her entry over at Azavea Labs.

Check out the Street View on Muralfarm.org and PhillyHistory.org, and let us know what you think!

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