Project Maps

For the final project in History 1952, students assessed the role played by maps and/or mapping in understanding a historical event, idea, place, or phenomenon of their choosing. Their work consisted of

  1. curating a small set of historical maps germane to their topic (see the Project Galleries),
  2. exploring a spatial question or questions through mapping, and 
  3. drawing on the work of curating, mapping, and researching to write a paper.

The result is (in part) a set of fifteen interactive maps built using a range of tools and platforms, from Google Fusion Tables to Carto, Neatline to Map Warper. The goal in this project was not to build beautiful maps - though that is something to which most of us aspire - but rather to examine the geospatial context of history. The emphasis here was on mapping as an analytical process rather than on mapping as the visualization of a polished idea.

The maps below are publically available until January 20, 2017, at which time accessibility will be determined by each student's decision whether or not to make their work public outside the boundaries of the course.