Archaeologists often deal with historic maps and make use of them in their research. These maps are helpful in the reconstruction and interpretation of a landscape in that they can be integrated with GIS. This module serves as an introduction to the usefulness of historic maps as well as how to find historic map data.
The deliverable displays a historic map of Boston with the location of Paul Revere’s house. In addition, a portrait of Revere and an original census record listing Paul Revere are included. An incredibly brief biography helps to provide some background for the man himself. A note on design, I liked the look of the historic map of Boston and chose to highlight it in the foreground but also altered the display transparency to present it as a backdrop for the main map. I symbolized the location of Paul Revere’s house with a patriotic, red star and added callouts in an “antiqued” look to comply with the historic theme of the map.
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| A map showing historic Boston and the location of Paul Revere's home. |
The data for this map came from several sources. Ancenstry.com provided the image of Paul Revere and the census record from 1790. (This data is free to access during a two week trial after which there is a monthly subscription fee). A base map of modern Boston (not displayed on the deliverable) came from some searching on arcgis.com. It is important to consider the availability of historical data. To protect the integrity and security of the locations, much historic data is not readily, freely available. The historic map was provided to us for this assignment but there are some other sources for data like the USGS which has aerial photos from the mid-twentieth century available. There is, of course, also the library. Georeferencing historic maps is covered in the next module.
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