Category: Blog #5

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Blog #5

Blog 5

In general, story maps allow you to visualize your knowledge of events. When I was reading Willey’s memoir, I read locations such as Gracehill and Cootehill. However, I had no recognition of where those places actually are. Bodenhamer says that “we live in a physical world and routinely use spatial concepts of distance and direction to navigate our way through it” (14). However, I would had no concept of the spatial locations Willey visited by just reading text regarding unfamiliar areas. But with a map, I can see both these locations relativity to each other, learning the distances and areas Willey traveled. This is extremely important in learning the full history of Willey’s life. As Bodenhamer states, “all spaces contain embedded stories based on what has happened there” (16). Therefore, to fully understand WIlley’s journeys I must understand the areas he visited.

 

Specifically, through my story map of John Willey, I realized the extent to the busyness of John Willey’s life. Bodenhamer says “the deep map is meant to be visual and experiential, immersing users in a virtual world” (28). I truly do believe my story map was able to immerse me into the locations and events of Willey’s life. He was devoted to  a life of service in the Moravian church. Willey was on the ministry of several churches throughout his life. He was constantly moving from church to church. In that, WIlley moved all over Ireland and the United Kingdom. He had many homes throughout his life, and visited tons of locations. But as he began his life, Willey was most comfortable ending it in Gracehill. Willey traveled all over, serving churches, living an honorable life in Ireland and the United Kingdom.

[iframe src=”https://uploads.knightlab.com/storymapjs/d849a363e5966a3bb63b8481cd6cf5d9/john-willey/index.html” frameborder=”0″ width=”100%” height=”800″][/iframe]

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Blog #5

Blog Post #5

Over the past two weeks or so, my group and I put together a map of Northern England.  Our memoir was written by Elizabeth Grundy, and she discussed very important life events in her memoir that we thought needed to include.  The cities in our map are specific places that Grundy mentioned when these events occurred. Events included her sons birth, death, her own death, and when she moved to a different place.  Bodenhamer writes, “The spaces of interest to the humanities also could be personal-emotional space or the body in space-and even metaphorical or fictional…” (21). These events in Grundy’s life were so intense, I believe they could be considered a ‘personal-emotional space’, as Bodenhamer mentions.  Knowing these specific areas where she was, allows us to understand what she was experiencing throughout her journey, and knowing how far she had to travel, and what the areas she was were like. Using StoryMap JS specifically shows the distances between the places, and shows us the exact different spots in the country on the whole map.  We can zoom in out when we would like and see the broader vision if we would like. There were very tough things that happened to Elizabeth Grundy, and knowing how these all went down allow us to feel more connected to her. I really enjoyed making this map, and seeing the finished product was really great. Something that stood out to me in Bodenhamer’s writing was, “Spaces are not simply the setting for historical action but are a significant product and determinant of change” (16).  This connects to Elizabeth Grundy’s memoir, and the map I made, very well because of how it explains the importance of a space. It isn’t just a point on the map, but an event. Compared to the maps we found from the times of Grundy, they have come a long way in advancing them. The maps in the 19th century were hard to read and did not always include every place. There was nothing compared to StoryMap JS in those times, and it is amazing how fast technology changes and how dramatically.  Mentioned in Bodenhamer’s writing, there are so many new ways to explore maps these days. You can become apart of the map, and see everything that is in it. It is amazing how these things are possible, but I think this is such a great thing for discovering different places in the future.

https://uploads.knightlab.com/storymapjs/e9b9ba38a235ad1c530afdab9e1d6ba1/grundy/index.html

[iframe src=”https://uploads.knightlab.com/storymapjs/e9b9ba38a235ad1c530afdab9e1d6ba1/grundy/index.html” frameborder=”0″ width=”100%” height=”800″][/iframe]

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Blog #5

Esther Latrobe StoryMap

The process of laying out the memoir of Esther Latrobe on a map gave me not only the opportunity to learn more about her, but also to see the physical course of her life as a whole. Esther’s memoir primarily focuses on the prayer she cared so deeply about as well as the illnesses she endured throughout her life. She relocates at three points in her life, from Bristol to Gracehill to Tytherton, and finally, to Ayr. While she never mentions her form or experience of travel, the locations in which she lives are significantly far away from each other, and, at the time, the travels between those places would have taken days. Before creating my storymap, I never wondered why she chose not to write at all about her travels. However, after seeing the intensity that the travels would have had, I had to call into question its effects on her life. Being that she was a person who periodically became ill, it is likely that the close quarters and unsanitary conditions of travel took a toll on Latrobe and her body. That is why it is so enigmatic that she would have no mention of such travels in her memoir. Without the process of creating a storymap, however, I would never have thought to ask such a question. The storymap process also helped me to break down Latrobe’s life in a different way. It helped me to think of Latrobe’s life in terms of geography rather than timeframe and break up some major events in her life. I chose to attribute more than one slide to the places where major life events occurred due to the low number of relocations in Latrobe’s memoir versus the rest of the Moravian memoirs. Ayr was clearly the most significant place in Latrobe’s life; it is where she lived with her husband for the majority of their marriage, had her son, and eventually died. However, according to Latrobe, Tytherton meant more than any other place to her due to the establishment of her close connection to God there. Overall, the mapping process gave me a new perception of Latrobe’s life and her travels and allowed me to think more deeply about her actual writing and why she chose to write about what she did. As Bodenhamer says in his article, the act of placing a sequence of events on a map means visualizing time and space in the context of one person’s life, and it acts as a guide to that life and its relation to the world in its time.

 

StoryMap: [iframe src=”https://uploads.knightlab.com/storymapjs/4703e74bdaa1d34536ae08a785be92cc/latrobe-storymap/index.html” frameborder=”0″ width=”100%” height=”800″][/iframe]

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Blog #5

Blog #5

The process of mapping events from my memoir showed me just how important the visualization of geographical locations really is in understanding the text. My StoryMap helped me become more familiar with not only the text in my memoirs but also with the person the text was about: Benigna Briand. Mapping this memoir, I saw Benigna’s story come to life. As Bodenhamer wrote, my memoir served as a “mediator between us and the world it represents, and the two were brought together when mapped (Bodenhamer 25). Mapping brings you to this next level of understanding, especially in the content I transcribed, because it makes you familiar with the places mentioned in the memoir. Because all of my memoir took place in England, I had no sense of the geographical relativity of the places mentioned.

As stated by Bodenhamer, an artifact, such as a memoir, anchored in space (geographical/ mapping), creates a unique view and dynamic memory (Bodenhamer 27 & 28). Likewise, putting this artifact, or Briand’s memoir, into space through a StoryMap brings on a whole new and unique perspective. Bodenhamer also points out that deep mapping immerses the user into a virtual world of emotions based on the information mapped/ known (Bodenhamer 28). When mapping my memoir, I became enthralled in the world that was created. It was like I was there for specific events in Benigna Briand’s life. Mapping also made me realize certain geographical attributes from my memoir and the high importance of specific events. For instance, I knew that Benigna Briand was baptized in a lake, What I didn’t know was how far this lake was from Benigna’s home. The journey to this lake to get baptized had to have taken place over several days, and mapping this event showed me just how important it must’ve been in Benigna’s life to travel such a great distance. Also, I knew that Benigna traveled from Bath to Bristol every Sunday for 6 years in order to attend religious ceremonies, braving any poor weather or dangers that were on the way. Until mapping this event, I didn’t realize how far Bristol is from Bath, showing me just how dedicated Benigna was to the Moravian Society.

When creating a story to map, I decided to include all important events in the life of Benigna Briand, regardless of their geogrpahical location. Even if two consecutive events occurred in the same location, I mapped it. I did this because I wanted my map to not only show the many places travelled in my memoir but also the places in which several events took place. The impact that this has on the story as a whole, in my opinion, is large; mapping in this way also shows the importance of certain locations  to the life of the person that is being mapped. For instance, in my story there are several events that take place in Lyneham of Wiltshire because that is where Benigna spent most of her early life, making it a very significant location. This is also seen in Bath, the city in which Benigna and her husband settled down and started a family and Benigna ulitmately passed away.

[iframe src=”https://uploads.knightlab.com/storymapjs/8fff9ff31fd20510f3940093127b8ecd/bethlehem-benigna-briand/index.html” frameborder=”0″ width=”100%” height=”800″></iframe]