Mapping the Past Roundup

Maureen McGavin, "Digital project focuses on Lincoln-based sermons," Emory News Center, February 22, 2013

The route of Lincoln's funeral train

A group of graduate students at Emory University specializing in digital research in the humanities have created a new website that uses digital tools to analyze and compare the text of sermons delivered after Abraham Lincoln's assassination.

Their project uses various digital text tools to map geographic and thematic patterns in the collection of 57 sermons, which reside in the Manuscript, Archives and Rare Book Library of Emory's Robert W. Woodruff Library. The scholars are calling their project "Lincoln Logarithms: Finding Meaning in Sermons" and they hope it will become a model for the next wave of research in the humanities.>>>

Max Fisher, "A surprising map of the world’s national holidays (only two countries have no national day)," Washington Post, February 26, 2013

This map, inspired by a Reddit thread with a similar map, shows the national days of the world’s countries. As you can see, the world is mostly divided between countries that celebrate a national independence day and countries that celebrate a national unification or revolution day. The outliers are a tiny minority, and only two countries have no formal national day at all.>>>

Mike Laycock, "Historical mapping project nears completion," the Press, January 30, 2013

A 40-YEAR research project to map York’s historic past is finally nearing completion. A series of maps showing how the city developed from Roman times to the present day is set to be published, along with essays by leading academics. Dr Peter Addyman, chairman of York Civic Trust, had the idea of creating the cartographic study of the city’s development when he founded York Archaeological Trust in 1972.>>>

James Hamblin, "A Mapped History of Taking a Train Across the United States," the Atlantic, February 21, 2013

The first steam engine railway travel took place 209 years ago today. Here, the story of how the Civil War impeded, and then accelerated, the progress of America's trains. . . . before we could build the transcontinental railroad, the Civil War broke out, which temporarily stalled things. Ultimately, however, the war accelerated the ubiquity of trains. Railway and bridges were destroyed, and Americans learned to rebuild them better and faster.>>>

Mark Syp, "Exhibit at Princeton University Library showcases American History from 1607 to 1865," Times of Trenton, February 22, 2013

In its new exhibit, “A Republic in the Wilderness: Treasures of American History from Jamestown to Appomattox,” Princeton University Library shows that Lincoln’s death marked not just the end of the Civil War, but the end of the first chapter of American History. The exhibit presents more than 100 artifacts that trace the course of early American history. The items span more than two centuries, from the founding of Jamestown in 1607 to the end of the Civil War in 1865. . . . The artifacts include maps, manuscripts, printed books, early photographs, works of art, coins and even a cannon ball. Several are on display for the first time.>>>