The Apprentice Historian

Miller Time

I think I have finally recovered from the project. I have to say that this one was particularly enjoyable, as were all of the projects for this class. Just the right balance of creativity and historical craftsmanship, sprinkled with just enough challenge to make it interesting without being overwhelming. Hats off to Professor Petrik for putting together such a well done class!

Here are the pages of my atlas spread [warning, hefty download size!]:

Download final_project_pgs12.pdf
Download final_project_pgs_34.pdf

I thought about extracting the text and pictures and arranging them here, but rejected that idea as too, well, last semester! Maybe I'll take on that task after Christmas has passed.

I have really enjoyed this class and my classmates this semester. I'm inflicting myself on Professor Petrick again next semester in a special readings class called HIST 798: Mapping History. Stay tuned, I'm sure I'll have a lot to blog about.

Happy and Peaceful Holidays to everyone!

What I've Got (not the Sublime song)

Here’s where the final project stands right now:

 

These are the mockups because I really want some input from my classmates tonight in class. So I roughed-in the main essay and some of the supporting graphics. None of the floorplans are the final version and I’m still working on securing the quantitative data for the graphs. I’m also curious about how to cite sources in this kind of format. I know I need an additional caption or two. Heck, even the existing captions are really only in draft form.

But there it is, in all of it’s Adobe Illustrator glory. To quote Karin’s blog, fire when ready!

Closets (Please, spare me the smart comments!)

Here's where I stand on the closets issue.

• I am fairly convinced that closets were not wide-spread in the late 18th century because of any kind of government-imposed tax (based on research into tax codes and an email with a prominant tax historian). Regardless of what the US Parks Service says!
• I have found a half-dozen house floor plans that plainly show the growth of the closet as an integral part of houses (and bedrooms in particular), starting in the very late 19th century.
• I am convinced that the growth of closets is a result of the Industrial Revolution and how it remade the world's perception of cloth and made everyone (eventually) generally wealthier.
• Given another two semester's worth of research and work, I think I can actually prove it.

Now it's just a matter of the layout, right?

Hope everyone else is making progress!

The Point of Diminishing Returns and the Architectural Reconstruction Project

I definitely smashed through this point at some point after midnight last night. This project was the biggest time sink so far, on par with the final project for last semester. But John Henry put the bar high, and Don Fields made it look easy, so I found it hard to find a point where I was happy. Come to find out that your choice of architectural subject and the available background sources (pictures and drawings) makes all of the difference in the world!

My topic was the gunfight at the O.K. Corral, arguably the most famous gunfight in American history. I thought that utilizing a Sanborn fire insurance map of Tombstone, Arizona from about the time of the fight would reveal some details about the way the event played out. Thinking that a reconstruction of the buildings in and around the O.K. Corral would be useful, I set out to build as much of the city I could in the time frame of the project. I discovered that, as with most of Dr. Petrik’s projects, the devil is in the details.

Background
Around 3pm on 26 October 1881, in Tombstone, Arizona, the bad relations between the Earp brothers (backed up by the inimitable Doc Holiday) and the local crew of roughnecks collectively known as the “Cowboys” came to a head in a vacant lot near the corner of Fremont and Third Streets. In a short 30 seconds of shooting, over thirty shots were fired. As the smoke cleared, three of the five Cowboys lay dead or dying and two Earps and Holiday were wounded. Wyatt Earp and Doc Holiday were charged with murder since they were not lawmen (Virgil was the city marshal and Morgan was one of his deputies) but in a controversial hearing, the presiding judge and the grand jury determined that there was not enough evidence to bring the men to trial.

Sounds simple, right? But as the Wikipedia article notes: “The conflicts leading to the gunfight are complex: the two sides were related in two instances (in both cases related by strong family ties), but were in opposition due to politics, business concerns, and other ideological factors.” Wikipedia actually gives the incident a thorough treatment. And the controversy remains even to this day, as evidenced by this website, maintained by a distant relative of Ike Clanton (perhaps the central antagonist of Cowboys involved in the fight). Even HistoryNet has gotten in on the action, publishing three articles about the event. Perhaps I could add some more detail to the conversation about the shootout with a model of the immediate area of the vacant lot. (By the way, the fight did not become known as the “Shootout at the O.K. Corral” until several years after – a newspaper man decided that “Shootout in a vacant lot near the corner of Fremont and Third Streets” just didn’t have a good ring to it....)

Process
Once I had decided to investigate Tombstone, Arizona circa 1881, it was an easy trip to the Library of Congress Map Division Reading Room.  There I was quickly able to locate the Sanborn Fire Insurance Company maps of the town. Unfortunately, the oldest map extant is dated 1883. Normally, this wouldn’t be a problem, except that a fire in June 1881 destroyed the eastern side of Tombstone and another fire in May 1882 destroyed the western half of the city, including the O.K. Corral. And while it is obvious from comparing the Sanborn map with primary sources that some of the buildings were rebuilt on their pre-fire foundations (including the famous corral), some of the structures mentioned in the accounts of the fight do not appear on the Sanborn map.

Figuring it was too late to change track and as of yet undaunted, I forged ahead. Importing the digitized Sanborn map into SketchUp was easy. Then it was just a matter of building on the plots indicated by the Sanborn map. Learning the symbols on the map helped to determine the materials to paint onto the structures. For instance, an “x” indicates a wooden shingle roof, while a black circle (“●”) shows a composite roof and a open circle (“○”) specifies a slate roof. In addition, yellow structures are timber framed, brown designates adobe walls and red means brick. And while the Sanborn map showed the City Hall as the only brick building on the block, the brick City Hall building was not built until 1882.

Given the time constraints (this is a small project and only 15% of my final grade!), I decided that I would carry on with the Sanborn map reconstruction. If I were digging deep, I would probably start pouring over the newspaper accounts and other primary source material to determine what buildings were where. There are several pictures of Tombstone in the 1880s that helped me determine the shape of the buildings and the (wide variety of!) materials used to construct them.

Then it was just a matter of plowing through the 33 buildings on the block. Again due to time constraints, I focused most of my detail work on Fremont St., the northern side of the block where the gunfight occurred. As a nice bit of detail, the sun is set for 3:00pm on 26 October, giving some idea of the role the afternoon sun would have played in the drama.

   

Benefits
The cool factor is high on these, but I am not convinced that I learned anything new about the actual event from the model itself. In addition, the primary map source I found turned out to be misleading thanks to the May 1882 fire. Given the time and inclination, I am sure that I could do a true reconstruction of the town based on written descriptions and old photographs.

What I did gain is a deeper understanding of the town itself due to the time spent researching the buildings and the building materials. This increased my exposure to and the depth of my knowledge of the American West exponentially. I am not sure I would have spent as much time digging into the details without the need to reconstruct the town. I am also still encouraged by this line of visual thinking. I believe that there are historical questions that can be addressed in original ways with this kind of investigative tool.

Spring '08 Registration Already??

Since registration for the Spring semester opened today for graduate students, I thought I’d take a moment to query my classmates on the merits of different classes. I’m trying to decide whether to take HIST 610 now or put it off for an additional semester. On paper, there are two compelling reasons to put it off: Professor Bristols’ “Approaches to Modern World History” and Professor Hamdani’s “Revolution and State in Islam.” See I came to GMU thinking I wanted to be on the World History track. The broad themes and wide scope of World History appeal to me. But since I started the program, I have discovered that I need to take World History courses when I can — qualifying World History courses are comparatively few and far between! So I feel like I should step up to one of these classes while I can.

Another reason to skip 610 this coming semester, albeit a long shot, would also be Professor Stearns’ “Behavioral History” course — the course description does note that “Discussion will include both American and international topics.” I might be able to build a case for this as a World History course, right? The same idea of broad themes and wide scope implied in Behavioral History catch my attention.

But, and here’s where I would like some opinions, I’m nearing the end of my grace period for HIST 610. And since there are two sections of this course being offered in the Spring, I’m wondering if someone has a position on the merits or the shortcomings of HIST 610 with either Professor McGrath or Professor Hamner. Or taking classes with Professors Stearns, Hamadania, or Bristol, for that matter.

I’d like your honest opinions, so please email me directly (cking9 [at] gmu [dot] edu), unless you want to go public with said opinions. As would be expected, I will keep any and all responses confidential!

This week's reading
Katherine Harmon’s beautifully illustrated collection of essays was an interesting diversion from the work of the past few weeks. It’s another reminder that a map does not have to be a 1:24,000 topographic projection map from the USGS. Bridget Booher’s “Body Map of My Life” made me start a catalog my own set of scars and memories. And this past weekend I thought often of “The Mental Geography of Appalachian Trail Hikers” by Roger Sheffer as I hiked out to Corbin Cabin in the Shenandoahs — a location that is about 2 miles from the Appalachian Trail.

Then again, I don’t have to be reminded that maps don’t have to be of terrain or territory! My final project for this class uses architectural floor plans as maps of the development of the closet in American homes. I am taking the definition of “map” (“a representation usually on a flat surface of the whole or a part of an area”) at face value, which I believe was Harmon’s intention with her entertaining collection of essays.

Good Visit to LOC today!

We took a field trip to the Library of Congress today in lieu of class. I'll trade class for prowling around the map vault deep in the bowels of the LOC any day of the week! We even got to see an original map of Mt. Vernon as drawn by Geo. Washington himself (the first shot of three on the right). We were also able to see a facsimile of the 1507 Waldseemüller world map, the first to include the designation "America" (middle). Only a facsimile, though — the Library paid $10 million to secure that baby from the Germans, so they aren't about to let just anyone near it! We even got to see Orelius’s "Theatrum Orbis Terrarum" of 1570, considered to be the first modern atlas (last shot above). That's the one Professor P seems to like so much, and I can see why now. It was gorgeous!

Now, to business. I have a question for my classmates. My final project is on the evolution of the closet in American homes. I I have clear evidence that closets sprang into being sometime in the late 19th century. I'm getting to the point in my research where I think I need to explore a little about why? I suspect that the amount of clothes people owned started to increase due to the Industrial Revolution and the resulting changes in cloth manufacturing. But I know very little about the history of clothing. So my question is this: does anyone know a good source to give me an overview of the growth of textiles and clothing from 1880 to the middle of the last century? It's such a vast pool of resources that I'm a little at a loss for where to go to get oriented (there's my map tie in!). Thanks in advance!

On Rubber Sheeting

With this project, the real frustration was finding the right maps and digital files. The USGS site certainly does not make that seemingly simple task easy. Once the correct maps are procured, the rest is easy and fun. Important tools to navigate the labyrinthine USGS site: 1) the Geographic Names Information System, which will tell you which maps you need for specific geographic location; 2) the New USGS Map Locator and Downloader, a handy tool that will project the names of the surrounding maps onto a refreshingly intuitive Google Map interface; 3) quantities of single malt, a handy suggestion from fellow classmate John Henry. Once you know what maps you need, sites like GeoCommunity make procuring the files relatively easy.

The results are quite impressive. Take these above, for instance. The first is a look down White Oak Canyon from the upper falls. The DRG overlay is the USGS 1:25K map used by most hikers, myself included. I added trees in, although the sheer number required to simulate the forest in the canyon defies easy simulation. Here, the trees mostly serve to provide some (needed) perspective on how far down the trail you can go. The second (center) is from the same spot, this time looking across the valley at Old Rag Mountain. The summit is on the left. The final image is from the Old Rag Mountain Byrd’s Nest Shelter, near the summit, looking west to White Oak Canyon.

These images show that rubber sheeting can be very useful in providing different perspectives of a location or a set of locations. These different perspectives can be useful for envisioning the terrain (like the first image on the left above) of a location. This can be the first step to a better understanding of decisions made during historic events. By virtually “walking the land,” we get some insight into the heads of historical players that mere academic research cannot provide. These techniques can also allow us to turn the clock back by erasing modern development may have overtaken the landscape.

Take this map of Gettysburg, for instance. We are 200 feet above the location of the "high water mark of the Confederacy," along the stone wall at the center of Cemetery Ridge, looking north towards the town. Using Natural Scene Designer (NSD), I overlaid an aerial photograph (DOQQ) file to see the layout of the Battlefield park now. Comparing this with maps of the battlefield then allows me to pick out the changes wrought by time and land development. (By the way, LizardTech has a free utility that will convert MRSID files to TIFF or JPEG files, the latter being usable in NSD.)

Finding Your Limits

At the same time, it’s easy to go overboard. Following up with my earlier hand drawn map of Pearl Harbor, I though recreating the flight path of Japanese dive bombers during the attack on Pearl Harbor would be a worthy project. It’s a slippery slope from good idea to bottomless time sink, however, and easy to blow past the point of diminishing returns without even noticing. As you can see from this screen shot (left), I used NSD to stitch together a map of the island of Oahu. This allowed me to add an animation path that showed the estimated flight path of the first wave of Japanese dive bombers across the entire island. The problem was the level of detail I wanted at Pearl Harbor, which only looked right with the 24K DEMs. To get that detail plus the whole island for the flight path, I needed several of the 1:24K DEM files. But once I started appending map sheets, I couldn’t stop – an island just doesn’t look right with chunks missing! I put all 15 of the DEM sheets together in one file. I added three 24K DRG maps (right image) to give the modern-day details and important landmarks, but decided to stop with just enough to show the area of interest.

I also discovered that the alignment wasn’t quite right on the DRG to DEM overlay. By using the “oceans” feature in NSD, I already knew what should be water. Looking at the first image (below left), you can see the shapes in the water are off. Manually adjusting the DRG overlay to match the shapes found in the DEM was relatively quick and easy (below, right).

Once I had my maps set, I could then choose December 7 for the date and 7:55am for the time, set the sky for sunrise and get some pretty spectacular images. The first on the right below is from about 7:45, just as the Japanese planes started their turn towards Honolulu. I had never thought about the fact that the pilots would have been flying into the sun – a perfect target for a US Combat Air Patrol on alert over Pearl Harbor. You can see Ford Island in the center of the harbor, just as Mitsuo Fuchida saw it as he counted the battleships moored in the harbor. I could also set up the camera to show the view from 700 feet and angled down, much like it must have looked to the lead dive bomber pilot as the attack began (the USS Arizona memorial helpfully marks the location of Battleship Row.)

Overboard at Pearl Harbor

In the overboard selection, the animation tools allow for some pretty spectacular options. For instance, I set a flight path across the whole island, over and into Pearl Harbor, and then an egress route back to the north. I set the date and the time, set the camera to fly at the expected speeds of the Aichi D3A Type 99 dive bombers, and the same altitudes the bombers would be expected to fly. I was even able to program the flight path to include the dive bombing attack profile, plummeting from 3,000 feet over Ford Island to 300 feet and then pulling up and away from Battleship Row.

The result? A 1,431,678 KB file (no, that’s not a typo – this baby is 1.5 GIGABYTES!!) that took eight hours to render all 8,567 frames. The movie itself tells me that it took about eight and a half what must have been nerve-wracking minutes of flying over Oahu before they were in position to make the attack, and that the dive bombing itself was over in less than 10 seconds. Neat in a whiz-bang techno-geek kind of way, but relatively light on the Historical Insight nutritional value.

Conclusion

The lesson I am taking from this exercise is “good things in moderation.” While rubber sheeting images onto Digital Elevation Maps has a high “wow” factor, that should not be a disqualifier. There is historical value in getting a eye-level view of the terrain in question, of expanding our understanding beyond just the written accounts. With rubber sheeting, I have a better understanding just what it meant to fly to Pearl Harbor or cross the valley between Seminary Ridge and Cemetery Ridge. This additional point of view only serves to expand my understanding of these historical events, which is, in the end, the power of these kinds of digital imagery.

More Shared Wisdom

I don't think I've yelled at my PC this much since I made the upgrade from Windows 95 to Windows 98.

I've had good success getting DEMs and DRGs from GeoCommunity. But that is only when I know what @#$(^%! map to look for! Oh, the blood pressure is high because the USGS set of maps is so obtuse that it DEFIES LOGIC. Even using the GNIS system from my last post is only somewhat useful, as I have discovered that the features I am interested in are all on the EDGES OF THE MAPS! That shouldn't be a problem, except that I don't know the names of the adjacent map sheets. Grrrr! Until a few minutes ago, I have been unable to locate a master map that can tell me what regions I should be downloading from GeoComm. The frustration level is HIGH.

But I just found the new Map Locator and Downloader at the USGS online store. This beautiful piece of code takes the easy-to-use and intuitive Google Maps interface and will overlay the names of the USGS maps you need. More importantly for me, it now gives me the names of the adjacent DEMs and the DRGs I need to download from GeoComm.

So, fellow mappers, I hope this will help with the blood pressure spikes that I am sure are occurring this weekend!

Name Search on USGS Site!

A quick update: in class tonight we were talking about finding the right USGS map quadrangle and how difficult it can be. I had mentioned that I had seen the master map of the US quad maps somewhere in the morass of the USGS site, and was determined to find it again to share.

Well I found something so much better. The Geographic Names Information System (GNIS) which allows you to search by geographic name. THIS ROCKS! I'm looking for White Oak Canyon, an excellent hiking spot out near Old Rag Mountain in the Shenandoahs.

 

Type in the name of the feature or location you are trying to find, along with any additional info to help narrow the search and presto! It gives a list of possible matches with lat/long info, the USGS map name, elevation, an ID.

But wait, there's more! In an incredible turn that is as useful as it is unexpected on the USGS site, click on the feature you want. The screen shot below shows the detail available: counties, map names, detailed lat/long and check out the Mapping Services sidebar on the right! Links to the feature in all kinds of online mapping tools! It's a crying shame that this tool is buried in the USGS website — be sure to book mark this site, kids! http://geonames.usgs.gov/domestic/

Inadvertent Lies

My favorite chapter of Mark Monmonier’s How to Lie with Maps is chapter 10. Not because of the content (the perils and pitfalls of data maps), but because of this warning at the beginning:

Moreover, because of powerful personal computers and “user-friendly” mapping software, map authorship is perhaps too easy, and unintentional cartographic self-deception is inevitable. How many software users know that using area-shading symbols with magnitude data produces misleading maps? How many of these instant mapmakers are aware that size differences among areal units such as counties and census tracts can radically distort map comparisons? Monmonier, page 139

I, for one, did not know that using area-shading symbols with magnitude data produces misleading maps, or that size differences among areal units can radically distort map comparisons. That is the danger of dabbling in technologies without a solid understanding of the theory behind a field. I think we should be well-served if we take this warning to heart. We’re really only playing at being cartographers and should remember that we are historians first.

On the other hand, this serves as another example of how crossing over academic boundaries serves us well. Cultivating a network that includes cartographers and geographers gives one a group of experts that can provide a safeguard against wanton data distortions of the type Monmonier warns us about.

In more practical matters, I am becoming more aware of maps in my day-to-day world. This weekend I had the opportunity to drive a good distance while relying on a Garmin GPS unit for directions. I was fascinated by the way the unit displayed the driving map. As with most GPS units, this one projected the route as a colored line on a road map. What grabbed my attention was the bird’s eye view used to display the route. The map scale adjusted so that I could always see the next waypoint in the bird’s-eye view. It made for fascinating viewing, as I could see either a quarter-mile ahead to the exit ramp off the interstate, or I could see 43 miles ahead down the long, windy country road to the next turn. I thought it was an inspired use of perspective on a map!