Category: Blog #5

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Blog #5

Blog #5

Throughout the entire process of creating this timeline for Elizabeth Grundy’s memoir, there have been multiple new perspectives that have been brought to my attention after using StoryMapJS. The whole process was extremely helpful in allowing me to gain a deeper understanding of this memoir, and after creating this timeline I have a much more clear idea of what Elizabeth Grundy’s life was like for her in each of the different places she traveled to throughout her memoir. “We see space as the platform for multiplicity, a realm where all perspectives are particular and dependent upon experiences unique to an individual, a community, or a period of time”(Bodenhamer, 14). Before looking at Grundy’s memoir geo-spatially, reading her memoir could get to be confusing at times where a bunch of different place names are being tossed around. Once I was familiar with all the place names in the memoir, I was able to connect most of the events that happened in this memoir with the location in which they occurred.

After doing this it was like I had gained an entirely new perspective about the memoir that I had never seen before, which is why I selected this quote from Bodenhamer. It shows that space opens up a whole slew of new insight once you start connecting places with other important pieces of the memoir such as people, events, or emotions. “All spaces contain embedded stories on what has happened there. These stories are both individual and collective, and each of them link geography (space) and history (time)”(Bodenhamer, 16). I found the link between space and time to be the most essential piece of bringing the memoir together.

Bodenhamer claims that each individual location that is mentioned in a story has it’s own embedded story behind it, so learning about these locations can help you to understand the writing more closely. In my case with Elizabeth Grundy’s memoir, gaining an understanding of each of the locations in the memoir, and being able to understand which events occurred there made the memoir much seem more smooth and fluent. “[Mapping] promises an alternate view of history and culture through dynamic representation of memory and place, a view that is visual and experiential, fusing qualitative and quantitative data within real and conceptual space”(Bodenhamer, 29). The biggest take away from this whole process for me was learning the different between visual and experiential representations. Mapping with StoryMapJS allows us to incorporate both of these into one efficient representation.

 

https://storymap.knightlab.com/edit/?id=grundy-memoir-caleb

 

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Blog #5

Blog #5

My experience with StoryMap JS was frustrating at times, to say the least, but once my map was completed there was a clear visual representation of the path traveled by Rosine and, her husband, Michel Tanneberger. I struggled the most with finding the towns on my basemap because of how many were present and how small the font was. Once I located both the towns that were included in my memoir, it was clear to me how far Rosine and Michel had to travel and it was evident how important space and time were in relation to their travels. As Bodenhamer mentions, “We are drawn to issues of meaning, and space offers a way to understand fundamentally how we order our world” (pg. 14).

Back in the 18th century, their main form of transportation was by foot. When I put both of these locations into the modern form of Google Maps it says that it is 286km, which is 177.712 miles. Though the memoir doesn’t reveal where or when Rosine stopped along her journey, I’m sure that the places she chose were influential to her overall experience of traveling to a foreign land. I believe that the route of travel taken by the Tanneberger’s most accurately represents change, historical, in a spatial way. Bodenhamer explains this in the book by saying, “Spaces are not simply the setting for historical action but are a significant product determinant of change. They are not passive settings but the medium for the development of culture” (pg. 16).

I believe that mapping out historical events can create a visualization that is appealing both spatially and contextually. It usefully links both history and geography to create a story through time. After creating my own Story Map for this memoir and reading the passage from Bodenhamer, I realized how important this was to the project. It brought all of our information together to create a visual story.

Rosine Tanneberger’s memoir was very short, so I was limited with choice on which points to plot. I decided to plot her birthplace and where she traveled to. In addition to that, I plotted points in those towns (Mainly Mankendorf) when she expressed a feeling, and then described why.  Bodenhamer justified this point in his passage as, “the spaces of interest to the humanities also could be personal- emotional space or the body in space- and even metaphorical or fictional…” (pg. 21). Now that I have more experience working with maps and the Story Map JS website, I’m feeling more confident in my abilities to understand the visual and spatial representation that I created through this project with my memoir.

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Blog #5

blog post #5

A map is a great way to help the audience gain a lot of knowledge on a specific topic. It is defined as a “diagram of collection of data showing the spatial distribution of something or the relative positions of its components”. Where a feature on a map is located is important because it shows the relationship from feature to feature. In other words, it is a visual way where one can make connections from place to place and gain a broader understanding of something. I found it very interesting when Bodenhamer said, “We see space as the platform for multiplicity, a realm where all perspectives are particular and dependent upon experiences unique to an individual, a community, or a period of time” (Bodenhamer,14) because think this is a very strong and accurate point that he made.

I really enjoyed mapping Harriet Lees’ life and gained a lot of insight on her life and England in the 1800s while doing so. While mapping the memoir of Harriet Lees, I understood what the Bodenhamer was insinuating when he said, “Spaces are not simply the setting for historical action but are a significant product and determinant of change” (Bodenhamer 16).

Multiple places were referred to in the memoir of Harriet Lees’ and  while making a map of these different places, I was able to understand why each place held importance in her lifetime. I used maps and spatial thinking to help me understand the complexities and nuances of the history of Harriet Lees’ life. Like I stated before, mapping Harriet Lees’ life broadened my understanding and perspective of her life. This is because I traced each important part of her life discussed in the memoir. For example, I showed that Harriet Lees lived in Leominster, England for a big portion of her life with her husband and how when she got sick she traveled to Leamington in hope for the special healing waters to heal her sickness of the lungs.  Because there were only three places discussed in Harriet Lees’ memoir, I did further research on England in the 1800s and found places of importance as well. Other important places I found were Bath, Bristol, and London, England. I found that Bath England, similarly to Leamington, is also known for their spas and many people travelled there in attempt to regain their strength they had lost from sickness. I found that Bristol, England was relevant to Harriet Lees’ memoir because similarly to Leominster, Bristol was a very religious town where the Moravian church was located. I also researched London which was important because it was the biggest city in all of Europe and a central place for Moravians at the time. Interestingly, I also learned while researching London that the majority of Moravian women did not live in London, but in outside cities, such as Bristol. While researching Bristol on a map, I discovered that Bristol is closer to Leominster than London is, which is cool to think about in historical times.Overall, I think mapping is a very cool and unique way to relay information. David Bodenhamer says, “inherently spatial beings: we live in a physical world and routinely use spatial concepts of distance and direction to navigate our way through it” (Bodenhamer 14). I agree with Bodenhamer and this being said, I think mapping is very useful and fun at the same time!

[iframe src=”https://uploads.knightlab.com/storymapjs/6832125f9b54ae55b31ef0b2dc189120/harriett-lees-story-map-1/index.html” frameborder=”0″ width=”100%” height=”800″][/iframe]

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Blog #5

Blog #5

The geo-spatial data helped us make sense of the history of our authors because it gave us a visualization we have not yet seen involving our memoir. We have used a timeline as a visual to allow us to understand what Elizabeth Grundy did over time, but a geo-spatial visual has allowed us to engage so much more into her life . The spatial element is a component of our memoirs that allows us to understand how Elizabeth Grundy traveled throughout her life. Bodenhamer described the spatial element very well as a “complex relativistic view of space [that] has reinvigorated geography”(14). He not only mentions that it is a view of space, but also that it plays an important role in geography. While transcribing and editing Grundy’s memoir, I never actually considered where this was all happening. I knew it took place in Northern England, but I could not connect the place names in my head; creating this story map allowed me to make those connections. Grundy traveled a lot throughout Northern England, but her stops were all relatively close. She was born in Chowbent, Lancashire, made a stop in Dukinfield, Cheshire, and then made three stops in Western Yorkshire (Baildon, Fulneck, and Huddersfield). I liked how in his article, Bodenhamer challenged humanists saying that they disregard geography: “[Geographic Information Systems] demands the use of spatial questions, whereas most humanists think rarely about geographical space”(24). The fact that humanists can do all this work and not take into account the locations where everything happens is mind-boggling. There are so many questions that can be thought up when considering the geography of a memoir: why is this space important?; is it well connected?; is it urban or rural? Questions like these can help readers understand the complexities of the history of a memoir. By simply finding the locations on a map, these questions can be answered. In Grundy’s memoir, her stops are all pretty well connected, not too far away, and they are a bit more on the rural side. From this information, I can deduce that this space is important because Grundy never wanted to move too far away from her children. She grew up with very strict parents and wanted to make sure that her kids never felt the same as she did throughout her whole life. This shows when she even went to visit her daughter in Huddersfield. Mapping is a great way to assign spatial-data to a memoir: “It aids but does not replace expert narrative”(Bodenhamer, 28).

 

https://storymap.knightlab.com/edit/?id=tracing-the-life-of-elizabeth-grundy

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