Tag: History

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Blog #5

Blog #5

I didn’t expect mapping Esther Latrobe’s journey to be as insightful as it turned out to be. For me personally, I know that I have room to grow in the subject matter of geography. I have always had a terrible sense of direction. I also believe that I am not up to speed on geography. I am slowly learning how important and useful knowing the spatial differences between locations is as “we live in a physical world and routinely use spatial concepts of distance and direction to navigate our way through it” (Bodenhamer 14). When I was reading Esther Latrobe’s memoir I found myself reading the location of places she was moving to and leaving from, but never visualizing it. I read the place names and kept reading, not thinking that that would change how I think of Esther’s life. I thought I was close reading however, Storymapping JS gave me a new perspective of how much more I could learn from just a single location. Knowing where these major locations in Esther’s life were gave me a new perspective on how far she was truly traveling. As David Bodenhamer summarizes “human activity is about time and space” therefore using resources to “manage, relate, and query events, as well as to visualize them” is important for many aspects of piecing together history (Bodenhamer 22). I never had a true grasp on her journey until this experience of mapping the physical space.

For my Storymap JS I chose the few places Esther mentioned in her memoir as they all marked important places in her life. Her birth and death marked the start and finish of her journey. The Gracehill and Ayr were two places that Esther moved to on her journey that she spoke highly of in her memoir. There were significant events that all stacked on top of each other to form Esther’s path. These four places were far apart yet all marked important changes in Esther’s life.

After creating my story map I saw the physical space between Tytherton and Gracehill and had a few questions for Esther. I was curious as to why Esther didn’t include more about her journey in her memoir as the distance between these locations was so great. I would expect her to have life altering experiences along the way. The space difference between these two locations is much bigger than I thought from the lack of attention given to this experience in her writing. I now feel like she left parts of her life out of her memoir and there is more to what shaped Esther as an individual.

In general, creating a map can broaden a readers’ perspective. Often times, as I was, readers are more focused on the text rather than the actual location of places. Knowing the specific place at that time period gives plenty of context for the event. For historians this may give reasons and explanations for certain events. If there was tension in a nearby country or with a certain group within a country, at the same time and place, conclusions can be drawn. Piecing together history is much easier when you know the places things happened in relation to others. Bodenhamer summarizes this nicely by saying that landscape of culture and place is a powerful tool in “locating historical and cultural exegesis more explicitly in space and time” (Bodenhamer 28). These tools that allow us to “provide geographical context and depth to an expert interpretation of the past” are extremely useful especially when trying to understand the cause of certain effects (Bodenhamer 28).

[iframe src=”https://uploads.knightlab.com/storymapjs/ba6462a72c3fcb7093a45648ddf37add/latrobe-carly-pavoni/index.html” frameborder=”0″ width=”100%” height=”800″][/iframe]

Categories
Blog #5

Blog #5

The spatial humanities is a new field that combines both humanities and geography with conceptual space. This practice relies heavily on Geographic Information Systems to interpret data. “GIS is a seductive technology, a magic box capable of wondrous feats, and the images it constructs so effortlessly appeal to us in ways more subtle and powerful than words can” (Bodenhamer, p. 17). As consistent with the general theme of this class, the visualization tools that are given through GIS offer easy solutions to interpreting difficult and elongated texts or data. While text will intuitively provide a more thorough understanding of the information, understanding the material in its entirety can become difficult. An overflow of information is, in fact, detrimental towards internalizing the overall message. For this reason, Bodenhamer justifiably supports the use of GIS in the spatial humanities. This reason is that Geographic Information Systems have an “unparalleled ability to manage and visualize data within a spatial context that has led to a rediscovery of the power of the map” (Bodenhamer, p. 17).

Over history, certain places become more important due to the contextual events that are occurring. An individual’s time period within any geographical setting creates certain circumstances that he or she has to deal with. Therefore, the conditions of the environment gravely affect the life that person pursues. For example, consider the case of Esther Latrobe when she moved to Gracehill, Ireland. In the early 1800s, Ireland was experiencing the Evangelical Revival in which this region was 50 years behind the Church of England. As a consequence, society began to see more emphasis on religion. When Latrobe moved to Gracehill in the mid-1820s, she experienced this increased focus on religion. Such influence surely encouraged her to maintain her close relationship with God. A significant point revealed from mapping Latrobe’s memoir was her clear upbringing from high class. Within the few years she lived, Latrobe traveled far distances and visited different countries. Without the current age of airplanes and luxury cruise ships, traveling was no easy feat. Another revelation from the mapping process that can be found is the number of story points at each location. In my personal story map, I entered three points in Gracehill, Ireland. Therefore, it can be correctly inferred that this location was highly significant within Latrobe’s life. Not only did she spend many years teaching at a ladies boarding school there, but she both met and married her husband, James Latrobe, in Gracehill.

“We are 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, p. 14). As Bodenhamer believes, space is more than just for historical action. Space is a significant product and determinant of change.

[iframe src=”https://uploads.knightlab.com/storymapjs/9ac892bb38ca23e9f07dee5ffa147b92/latrobes-storymap/index.html” frameborder=”0″ width=”100%” height=”800″][/iframe]

 

 

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Blog #5 Uncategorized

Blog 5

Elizabeth Grundy traveled throughout Northern England during her lifetime. When transcribing the memoir, I was able to read all of the places she visited, but did not realize the extent at which her and her son traveled. By creating a map of these specific places, I was able to match places with important events and determine which towns were important in her life. I had never really thought about which events took place where and the fact that not all of the important parts of her life took place in one town. They were scattered throughout Northern England but specifically close to Lancashire and Yorkshire. When reading the transcribed memoir, I was unaware that Elizabeth Grundy moved around as often as she did.

 

In a more general sense, mapping can be used to link together different pieces of history. “But what we can do is inform the present more fully with the artifacts of social memory, the evidence of recall from various times and various perspectives,” (Bodenhamer 26). Sometimes, historians have information about a specific event and where it took place but are unsure about the timing. If they find another event that is related to the first, and it occurred in a place nearby, they can link these two events together and estimate a date as to when it occurred. They can also link together different towns across the globe if they plot the linked events. “We select and interpret these cultural artifacts to frame our understanding of the past and present,” (Bodenhamer 25). Historians are able to come up with lists of important events that occurred in several different places and realize how complex each event was and the effort that was involved in each one. “We must direct technology if it is to help us open the past to the multiple perspectives and contingencies we know existed in the past,” (Bodenhamer 26). Mapping allows us to explore these perspectives and allows historians to draw conclusions that they are unsure of.

 

Some important story points in my map that I included were the places where she was born and passed away. I added the town in which she started her School for Girls because this was an important point in her memoir. I also added some background knowledge about her son and his wife that may be missed when reading the memoir because it is mentioned briefly. The reason I added a slide for this was because Grundy’s son was very important to her and this was something important from his life. I also added a slide of a town that related back to her parents and life when she was younger. It provided readers with a sense of how religion became such a large part of her life. Readers are able to gain a sense of how each of these English towns influenced Elizabeth Grundy and her family throughout her life.

https://uploads.knightlab.com/storymapjs/43564e909fe38e64bb34700eca852209/koczur-grundy/index.html

[iframe src=”https://uploads.knightlab.com/storymapjs/43564e909fe38e64bb34700eca852209/koczur-grundy/index.html” frameborder=”0″ width=”100%” height=”800″][/iframe]

 

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Blog #3

Blog #3

The concept of the timeline is a new phenomenon. In fact, it was only created around 250 years ago. Ancient and medieval historians had their own methods of representing chronology: the chronological table. However, now “our idea of time is so wrapped up with the metaphor of the line that taking them apart seems virtually impossible” (Grafton, p. 13). Presently, lines are more common than often perceived. For example, even in an analog clock, the hour and minute hands trace lines through space. The fact that these lines are circular is irrelevant; they are lines regardless. So what are the advantages of using a timeline?

“History, indeed is the body, but chronologie the soul of historical knowledge; for history without chronologie, or a relation of things past, without mentioning the times in which they were acted, is like a lump or embryo without articulation, or a carcass without life” (Grafton, p. 19). In his book “Cartographies of Time”, Anthony Grafton discusses how history deals with stories but chronology deals with facts. These aspects of time work symbiotically; without one or the other, a time period is not described to its fullest potential. For this reason, a simple line can be much more efficient in representing information than initially anticipated. Especially considering the fact that “Graphic representation is among our most important tools for organizing information” (Grafton, p. 10).

Using a timeline was helpful in painting a larger picture in understanding the general themes of Esther Latrobe’s memoir. A recurring theme was the suffering through diseases. The picture below represents the time period of a cholera epidemic. From this portion of the timeline, we can see how the dates 1817-1824 (when the epidemic occurred) were relevant to Latrobe because she lived through this time period. In this manner, the timeline provides contextual evidence from a single glance.

The picture below describes how from 1820-1830 she was not only educated but also became a teacher at a ladies boarding school in Ireland. From this information, we can conclude that she came from at least middle class because education was more rare for a female in this time period