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.
