Reflective Blog Post #5 (Breanna Lefevers-Scott)

I enjoyed the process of mapping out an old map on a new map. My choice of map was the old campus map. After placing many points, it turned out like this. Although it isn’t perfect by any means, I tried my best to make everything line up as best as possible. I figured roads were the least likely to change, so I focused on them. This was especially the case because the streets were labeled.

As for the possibilities of uses after having a georectified map, one that I see with this particular map is looking at the change of paths and geography in the arb. For this example, I would look for older maps that also show the arb in the past and compare them to see the change over time. In general, I would gather more information for things that pertain to the map in either location to label more maps of the land.

There are definitely problems with georeferencing. Now, maps are generally generated through satellite images. However, that was not only the case. Many older maps were hand-drawn, which led to human error in both the drawing and labeling. There is only so much information historically that a map maker has when creating a map. Thus, there is missing information not seen with satellite imaging. Another main issue is the representation of a 3D object in a 2D format, along with the representation of a globe as a flat object.

I think that understanding the context surrounding historical maps does change how you should approach them for historical study. Maps are the representation of land with the people’s influence. So, knowing how people approached creating the map explains the details and implications of the maps at that time, as for this process. It didn’t change my understanding of earlier explored projects. At most, I have more respect for the time they put into their projects.