Final Project Update

Since my last blog post a lot has happened in terms of my final project. Firstly, i have begun experimenting with Google Earth. I was very impressed with how easy it was to use this software to visualize a particular landscape. Using the polygon feature, I was able to map out St. Patrick’s Ward in translucent green and add some place markers. Additionally, I visited Jenny Marvin who helped me digitize a selection of maps ranging from 1855 to 1989. Furthermore, I am contemplating cropping some of these maps and creating layers of maps over my Google Earth map of the Ward allowing website visitors to gain a truly visual sense of change, especially considering that in the 1855 map, the Ward does not yet exist. I have also visited the Wellington Museum website and have found some excellent photographic resources to use for my website. Some of them are covered by copyright, so I will have to request photos and wait to hear back on their status. I have also contacted the Guelph Civic Museum and will begin searching their collections as soon as I have the time. In terms of research, my efforts have been a bit scattered as I am covering such a vast topic and I am beginning to worry about website content. In terms of web tools, I have set up an account with Omeka which looks to be a good fit for a historical based website. Omeka has an ample array of plug-ins, however, I may need to link visitors to my Google Earth map on my University of Guelph host site. I took a look at Anje’s suggestions for my project and found them to be helpful. I will definitely incorporate a bibliography as well as links where I can. A walking tour should be fairly feasible for me, however, printable versions already exist and, as such, I question how much I would really be adding to the works of others in doing so.

There is a lot of work to be done, but I will continue my work and keep you all updated on what I am up to.

Project Brainstorming: Class and Physical Space

One idea which really interests me and which I would very much like to pursue as a final project is the idea of social class and physical space. In particular, I am interested in how and why social class and physical space overlap. Last semester, I spent a weekend in Montreal and during my time there I had a chance to walk to the top of Mount Royal to get a better look at the city. I had just recently read the book The Empire Within: Postcolonial Thought and Political Activism in Sixties Montreal for Professor Carstairs‘ HIST*4220 class which outlines the history of particular neighborhoods of Montreal. What I was struck by the most, was that the physical manifestation of social class outlined in The Empire Within is still visible. The picture below looks out over the neighborhoods of the traditionally working class south west. The south west of Montreal, as the hyperlink explains, is going through a period of regeneration, however its industrial working class heritage is still visible in comparison to the skyscrapers of the downtown core and the 19th century buildings of the McGill campus.

Looking Out Over the Southwest of Montreal

Downtown Montreal and Some Buildings from the McGill Campus

The exercise in GIS that our class did on January 22nd got me thinking about geography, social class, and change. The idea of layers of information seemed to fit quite well into the changing socio-economic and geographic makeup of not only Montreal, but other cities as well. Demographic information could not only legitimize, but enhance visualizations of changes to the composition of cities. Creating an interactive map which can illustrate interactions between socio-economic factors and geography is my prospective idea for my final project. Such a map could include photos, quantitative information, and layers emphasizing a changing historical context. I would like to investigate the possibility of making such a map for Guelph. I would also like to look into the resources available for such a project and discuss the feasibility of creating such a map. Additionally, I would like to see if there are chronological aerial photos of Guelph available for use. I am still in the developing stages in terms of this project to say the least and I am open to different ideas, suggestions, and feedback, so let me know what you guys think!

The Potential of GIS for the Humanities (especially history!)

The project which I have chosen to blog about this week which integrates historical research with GIS technology is a project at the University of Western Ontario called Imagining London. One of Imagining London’s central researchers is Dr. Jason Gilliland whose projects include studies of the evolution of London, Ontario due to natural and anthropogenic forces. For example, current projects include a study using GIS technologies of the impacts of fire on not only the physical form but also social form of the city. An additional project is the impact of flooding on London, Ontario, in particular the floods of 1883 and 1937. One interesting element of this project that I discovered is that the home base of the project is not a room lined with books, or as many of us might envisage, the library, but the Human Environments Analysis Laboratory. In terms of the question of how GIS technologies are useful to scholars and to myself, there are a few answers that seem to jump out. Imagining London perhaps cynically suggests that GIS tools are advantageous in history because they are practical and good for employment. One could also state, as MacFadyen suggests, that one of the biggest strengths of using GIS, in this case in conjunction with aerial photography, is that it breaks down academic walls and offers and interdisciplinary approach. This seems sensible as the study of physical landscapes, even in a historic sense, may necessitate a basic understanding of concepts such as erosion, forest succession, among others. In this blog post, I would like to delve a bit deeper into the topic and speculate that the most effective use of GIS technology is not in the tangible ways it helps historians approach a topic, but in how it allows historians to relate a topic to their audience.

I became familiar with Joshua MacFadyen’s work, in particular his work with aerial photography, last semester in Dr. Catherine Carstairs’ HIST*4220 Canadian Cultural Identity course. The blog entry which piqued my interest the most was his blog post “Exposing Nature: Aerial Photography as Witness and Memorial in Bonshaw, Prince Edward Island.” This article touches on the proposed re-routing of the Trans Canada Highway through an endangered tract of Hemlock forest in Strathgartney Provincial Park. This proposition triggered outrage from locals which resulted in the Prince Edward Island government proposing a second plan called Plan B which essentially changed the route but not its ecological impact. These events caused local residents to set up protest camps and launch a campaign called Stop “Plan B.” Using aerial photos collected between 1935 – 2010, MacFadyen reveals the untouched nature of the tract of Hemlock amidst agricultural development and disturbance. What is significant about this article to me, is that MacFadyen uses digital technology not only to document historical development in the area (or lack thereof) but to allow people to experience history and to give that experience meaning. That, to me, is the most valuable usage of GIS technology.

In my opinion, it is the idea of experience which has allowed the use of GIS technology to gain a substantial following amongst historians. MacFadyen himself explains this in “Mobile Mapping and Historical GIS in the Field” that it is “…in order to experience a place…” that one must understand it in its context. In this sense, GIS technology enables history to be learned not only through books, journals, and research, but through experience as well. Even in reference to Anne Kelly Knowles’ study of the Battle of Gettysburg, Tony Horwitz describes Knowles’ objective as follows: “…she wants to know what commanders could see of the battlefield on the second day at Gettysburg.” It is this idea of experiencing history which motivated Knowles in the first place as a child on trips to national historic sites in the United States. I think Nick also touched on this concept in his own blog entry. Using digital satellite mapping technologies, it becomes not only possible to identify the foundations of pyramids, but to visually reconstruct them and experience them a form closest as possible to their original form.

In terms of how GIS technology will be useful to myself, this week’s assignment has given me some new ideas for my project this semester and, come next Tuesday, I would like to investigate the possibility of a GIS project for the city of Guelph perhaps even integrating aerial photography if such resources exist. This would give me a potential opportunity to expand my knowledge of a city which most of us experience on a daily basis and perhaps add historical context to that experience.

Additionally, for those interested, I have done some digging on the “Plan B” highway. Protestors have been removed from their camp by the RCMP and it seems as though the project will continue.