Tag: Digital Review

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Railroads and the Making of Modern America: Documenting the Railroad industry on the backs of the slave trade.

Railroads and the Making of Modern America. http://railroads.unl.edu. Created by William G. Thomas III, Richard Healey, Ian Cottingham, Leslie Working, Nathan B. Sanderson, Zach Bajaber, Karin Dalziel, Keith Nickum, Brian L. Pytlik Zillig, Laura Weakly, Trevor Munoz, Dan Becker, Catherine Biba, Luci Bolwer, Karin Callahan, Sarah Dieter, Paul Fajman, Marco Floreani, Amy Grant, Erin Johnson, John Kemp, Kurt E. Kinbacher, Miles Krumbach, Dan Larsen, Steve McGuire, Lundon Pinneo, Cris Rasmussen, Anastasia Smallcomb, Nic Swiercek, Michelle Tiedje, Rebecca Wingo, and Robert Voss, The University of Nebraska Lincoln, http://railroads.unl.edu/about/index.php. Reviewed Jan. 2019.

It is said it takes a team to build a mountain. In reviewing Railroads and the Making of Modern America, a digital history project maintained through the University of Nebraska Lincoln. On a macro-level, Rail Roads and the Making of Modern America can be defined as a digital exhibit/tool, covering the socioeconomic, political, and cultural impact of the rail road between Nebraska and America’s slave trade. In discussing this topic, Rail Roads does a great job at maintaining a neutral point of view in providing objective content on the matter. At a more defined micro-level, you really begin to see the immense depth of this project. When visiting the site, a simple scroll of your mouse pad begins your journey as samples of content interchange on an automated slideshow.

Complimenting the automated slideshow, the home page, provides for the viewer easy access tabs concentrating on individual areas of this site. Tabs labeled “Data”, “Search”, “Topic”, and “Home” make it utterly impossible to get lost while navigating. I began maneuvering through this site simply by taking a quick glance at what each area had to offer. On a quick glance, I came across things photos, map, letters, reports, and contracts, mostly in relation to a specific rail road company or slave owner. In addition to these items were also more general documents specific to a region or route taken. Not isolated to any one area, these documents could be found within each area of study. An area not given much attention, was the adaptations for those with special needs or abilities. While each area of study contained an assortment of available content, individuals with special needs or abilities will need to find alternate aid to assist in viewing this site as no options are available for the filtering of these needs.

Aside from this, the content of this project is well organized and displayed. In general, the material housed here could benefit high school and college students in search of primary sources on this topic. Outside of classrooms, this source also has the potential to be useful for genealogy, with its capability to search for railroad employees. 

In reflection, the digital media pieces which stood out to me more than others as having the most potential included, an interactive map which allows the viewer to scroll through to a given event and connects it to an interactive calendar, so the viewer can connect an event. Another fascinating section documented the purchase of slaves to include surnames and quantities of slaves. Another area I particularly enjoyed was an element which use the rail road information to show an example of Spatio-Temporal Correlation Technology. For this example, you are given the option to view the map used from the view of elevation, population, or rail roads. For each of these, this example gives the viewer the option to scroll from 1869 to 1887 and literally watch the rail road system grow across the state of Nebraska. Finally, in what would be everyone’s favorite, Rail Roads and the Making of America has added to this collect several podcasts which allow for additional insight into some of the more detailed pieces to this story. As a bird’s eye view it is fascinating to watch the impact of the railroad in real time.

In conclusion, the work compiled for Railroads And The Making of Modern America is but a mere example of the heights digital history can go. In an age filled with up and coming tech savvy students, the need to maintain a higher level of engagement become more of a necessity. Railroads And The Making of Modern America does that perfectly.   

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Locating London’s Past: A Digital Review

Locating London’s Past. https://www.locatinglondon.org/ . Created by Matthew Davies (Centre for Metropolitan History, Institute of Historical Research), Tim Hitchcock (University of Hertfordshire), Robert Shoemaker (University of Sheffield), managed by Sharon Howard, developed by Jamie Maclaughlin (Humanities Research Institute), data prepared by Mary Merry (Institute of Historical Research), geo-references by David Bowsher, Peter Rauxloh and Sarah Jones (Museum of London Archaeology), technical work by Michael Pidd. https://www.locatinglondon.org/static/AboutThisProject.html . Reviewed February 8, 2019.

Locating London’s Past uses several maps of London to analyze geographic statistics. Using GIS, it illustrates 18th century records on John Rocque’s 1746 map of London. The University of Hertfordshire, the Institute of Historical Research, University of London, and the University of Sheffield developed this project. The project also got help from the Museum of London Archaeology and the Humanities Research Institute in developing the map and technical layout of the website. Because this is a non-profit project, the website depends on advertisements to maintain and upgrade it.

On the front page, one can examine 1746 London more closely and compare it with a 1869-80 map, a present day Google map, and a satellite view of London. There is an “about the project” tab, along with a short historical background section and a contact list. Under the about page, you can read more about the geocoding tool that they used to map the data in addition to the limitations they faced. Multiple places having the same name, several locations unable to be mapped, and failure to match street levels are some examples of these limitations with the tech.
In addition, you can also look at certain data and read document text. The majority of the content will be found under the data tab.

The data section of the project may look a bit puzzling at first glance, but it is helpful in finding specific information. For example, you can look at all of the documented trials from 1674 to 1819 that occurred at the Old Bailey. Here, you can choose the victim’s gender, category of offence, verdict and punishment. Suppose you wanted to look at all of the trials in London that involved an animal theft in which the male defendant was found guilty and sentenced to public whipping. As it turns out, several of those exact cases have been recorded. All of the trial account’s texts can be read and many can be mapped. The project has more to offer than just trial cases. It also includes criminal records, a list of carpenter apprentices, fire insurance policies, a 1774 directory of citizens living in London, religious records, burial records for plague victims, population distribution, and more. The authors include bibliography of the records used. Comparing population density on the map effectively can be complicated, but luckily the website authors have provided several video walkthroughs on Vimeo. This can be problematic if Vimeo eventually shuts down.

The project’s design is simple, but that is not a bad thing. It could benefit from fleshing out the historical background more by giving details on civilian life in 17th century London, but otherwise the information presented is straightforward. The abundance of specific categories to choose from is one of the main strengths of the project. From what I experienced, there does not seem to be any bugs or glitches on the project. This website will appeal most to visitors or researchers who want to analyze the geographic and court records of 18th century London.

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Digital Review: Geography of the Post

Blevins, Cameron, Jocelyn Hickcox, Jason Heppler, and Tara Balakrishnan. “Geography of the Post.” Cameron Blevins.  Feb 5th & 6th 2019

 “Geography of the Post” is an attempt to catalog every post office, both active and inactive that was constructed west of the 100th meridian between the years of 1846- 1902 in the United States.  The location of each post office that the site could verify is represented on the map by a colored dot. Researchers have two options for viewing the data. The first option uses four different colored dots to indicate the status of an office at a given location.  The designations tell the researcher if the post office was Established, Closed, Active Throughout, or Established and Closed.  The second option displays the post offices with dots showing how long they were active.  The darker the color of the dot, the longer it was in service.  Both views allow the user to adjust the period they are viewing but only for the aforementioned years.  The data variables can be set to any years in that range.  The creators note they were unable to include every single post office in this region due to gaps in the records, and that some of the post offices that are listed as newly opened were in fact renamed offices.  To aid researchers, they have included a running total of the percentage of post offices documented. 

The website uses data compiled by Richard Helbock in his work United States Post Offices vol. 1-8. The map that is used to display the data was created exclusively for this project.  Others might have chosen to use Google maps or a similar mapping application, but the creators opted for an application were they could keep complete control.  The display looks nice and anyone remotely familiar with the geography of the United States will easily recognize the shapes on the map.  However, the interface is clunky to use and just enough to annoy the user.  T is able to be moved around to focus on what the researcher is looking for, but it is a bit slow in its response to the movements of the mouse.  It also lacks a zoom feature, which prevents researchers from looking at things on a county or city level and thereby limiting the scope of research.  It only offers the region-sized map for viewing, and there are no geographic references besides the state boundaries.  There is no feature that gives the user a satellite view or allows for adding features like roads or rivers to the map.  This may require a researcher to have to cross reference other sources to verify locations of offices.

The audience for this website is going to be very limited.  Researchers who are doing projects focusing on the western United States are the main beneficiaries of this database.  The lack of a zoom feature would be a huge detriment to anyone doing a local history project at the county level or smaller.  On topics pertaining to the western states, this could be a very helpful website.  Using the data to track population movements or their rise and fall is rather easy to do, however the time limits are also constraining with that task.  A person with a casual interest in history is not going to get much out of this site.  The scope is too narrow and the features are underwhelming. 

The site does not make good use of the digital media.  It does compile a large amount of data into a usable format, but many features are lacking.  The slow interface also takes away from what should be a nice interactive experience.  The map itself is nice, but there is not much difference between that and a scanned piece of paper with the same dots on it.  This site falls short on what it could be.

The site was put together by Cameron Blevins, Jocelyn Hickcox, Jason Heppler, and Tara Balakrishnan.  They are associated with Stanford University. 

Overall, the site is underwhelming. It works well as a visual database, but the area it covers and the lack of geographic information potentially limit the types of research it would aid.  It is does have its purpose, but it is very niche.  For someone studying population movement of the American West at the end of the 18th century it would be a great tool, studying the postal coverage of El Paso, TX not so much.  Being able to zoom in closer would be a big improvement to the usability of the website.  Having more post offices on the map would also improve what the website can do.  Being able to see all the post offices to the Mississippi River or even further East would increase the research possibilities.   Marking the map with geographic features would help to improve accuracy of research being done also.

 

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