Month: October 2012

Historic Digital Maps of Maryland and Delaware Are Just a Click Away on New Website

Map of part of road from Philadelphia to Annapolis published in 1789 by Christopher Colles. Sources: David Rumsey Collection

Digital resources available to researchers have grown enormously in recent years, making the work of researchers much easier as sought after data is often just a few clicks away. Maps are one of those areas of growth as they’ve been scanned by special collections institutions, making them virtually available on demand.

I was recently made aware of a valuable new repository for researchers, Old Maps Online. This free resource serves an easy to use portal to historical maps in libraries around the world, allowing users to search for online digital historical maps across numerous different collections via a geographical search engine. It’s contributors include the New York Public Library, the David Rumsey Collection, the British Library and many more.

I’ve been using it for a few months now to access material to help with classroom lectures and public talks. It’s making items that are stored deeply away in distant, special collections institutions easily available.

In addition, you will find a number of other links to map resources on my links research page. 

Beers Atlas of Delaware, Newark Page, 1868: Source: Rumsey Map Collection

 

“If this Place Could Talk: Researching the History of an Old House” Examined in Talk at College of Southern Maryland

“If this Place Could Talk: Researching the History of an Old House” is a talk I am giving at the College of Southern Maryland on Oct 19, 2012.  The free program takes place at the Leonardtown Campus, 22950 Hollywood Road, Building A, Auditorium, Leonardtown  at 7:00 p.m.

Just as families have a past, old houses and properties have histories. When was the structure built? Who lived in it? How has it changed over time? And what are its stories? The lecture will introduce participants to strategies of discovery: organizing a research process, finding available records and documents, and     interpreting the findings.

The program is part of the Maryland Humanities Council’s speakers bureau series.  It brings historians, writers, poets, and living history scholar-actors to the community to present programs to audiences across Maryland.

Speaking About The Stories of Everyday People in the War of 1812 at the College of Southern Maryland

I have been asked to talk about “the Stories of Everyday People in the War of 1812,” as part of the College of Southern Maryland’s 2012-13 professional speakers series. The free program takes place at the La Plata campus,  8730 Mitchell Road, BI-113, La Plata on Oct. 22, 2012 at 7:00 p.m.

During the lecture I will largely draw on unpublished stories of underrepresented people, such as slaves, African-Americans and other people who aren’t talked about in the history books.  Along the way, we’ll consider what it was like when war came to the shores of the Chesapeake for the farmer, workingman, hired-hand, slave, freedman, and woman, the people who don’t usually make the accounts found in our published works.

The program is part of the Maryland Humanities Council’s speakers bureau series.  It brings historians, writers, poets, and living history scholar-actors to the community to present programs to audiences across Maryland.