St. Patrick’s Ward | Spencer's HIST*4170 Blog

At this stage of my project, I am working to develop my map of St. Patrick’s Ward. Most recently I have been doing some work with Google Earth’s image overlay feature. For smaller files, this feature has been excellent and has enabled me to layer several maps very accurately over my Google Earth map of the Ward. Unfortunately, some of the files I am using are enormous and therefore appear as a large red “x” over my Google Earth map. I have tried cropping my maps but for whatever reason when I press save, the image goes blank in the file thumbnail as well as the image itself. I am not sure how to remedy this issue. Compounding my frustration in that regard is the fact that the files are so large that it takes a while for my computer to do anything at all with the image. What I have been doing is, essentially, making a copy of the original file and using that copy to experiment with. If anyone knows, from that description, what I am doing wrong, any advice would be appreciated. Aside from that, the image overlay function works brilliantly for smaller files and I am very happy with the results. My map right now is my central focus as it will hopefully be quite elaborate and will take a fair amount of work. Otherwise, my website will be a medium through which I can provide the public access to materials they might not otherwise have access to. The text element will also be fairly straightforward to me as I am used to the research and writing process. Deadlines are fast approaching, so I am getting rather anxious to get what I am creating finished and on the web but there is still a lot of work to be done.

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.