Category: Delaware

Large Collection of Online Historic Delaware Maps Help Researchers

Part of the 1859 Map of Kent County Delaware (French), showing Leipsic. Source: Library of Congress
Part of the 1859 Map of Kent County Delaware (French), showing Leipsic. Source: Library of Congress

Over the past several years there has been an enormous increase in the number of historical maps that are available online.  These digital, on-demand collections are a great aid for those seeking to understand the past, whether it is for a scholarly investigation, local history study, or genealogy project. While the

 

Part of the 1859 map of Kent County Delaware showing Smyrna and part of Camden. Source: Library of Congress
Part of the 1859 map of Kent County Delaware showing Smyrna and part of Camden. Source: Library of Congress

maps, many centuries old, have always been available in special collections repositories around the nation, access was limited as trips to widely scattered archives and access rules created obstacles for some researchers.

Here are a couple of general starting points.  One of the best is  Old Maps Online, an easy-to-use web portal to historical maps in libraries around the globe.  It allows users to search across a number of collections, via a user friendly geographical search interface.  Another strong one is the Library of Congress.  The products can be downloaded and the scans, which are of high quality, can be magnified, in most instances.  Some of repositories require you to register to get full free access.

These and other research e-resources are revolutionizing the way we conduct historical research and are invaluable for those working in the past.  Here are some specific online Delaware resources, which you should find helpful.

  • The Library of Congress has the J. H. French Map of Kent County Delaware (1859), It can be downloaded in a large format in order to magnify the product.  There is also the Birds-Eye View of Wilmington Delaware (1874) in addition to over 30 more products.
  • Old Maps Online provides a portal to the full Beer Atlas of 1868, a most valuable product for researchers.  Here is the link to Georgetown Hundred but the other plates are there too.  
  • The USGS Historical Topographic Map Collection provides acce3ss to more than 193,000 topograph maps published by the USGS since the inception of the national mapping program in 1884.  It includes the Delaware products.  Also here is another free source for these maps.  
  • Historic aerial maps of Delaware, beginning in the 1930s and running to the present, are available online through a service provided by the Delaware Geological Service’s Delaware DataMil (Data Mapping and Integration Laboratory).  This virtual service allows researchers to easily acquire detailed visual representations showing the nature of development on parcels at specific points in time.
  • On one of the local heritage weblogs we follow, the Mill Creek Hundred History Blog, we found out about some great e-cartographic content at the “New Castle Community History and Archaeology Program” site.  The publisher of that site, Jim Meeks, has made some great produts available, including a zoomable copy of the Rea & Price Map of New Castle County (1849).

You will also find a collection of historic First State Maps at the Delaware Public Archives, as well as Official Highway Maps provided by DelDOT.  The first e-product there was published in 1906 and the Official Highway Maps start in 1920.

Check these site out the next time you are working on a Delaware project, regardless of where your inquiry takes you around the State.  You will find many other maps of interest once you start searching these and other databases and with each passing year more of these resources are open sourced, greatly expanding efficiencies for those studying the past.

A plate from the Pomery & Beers Atlas of Delaware (1868) showing White Clay Creek and Newark.
A plate from the Pomery & Beers Atlas of Delaware (1868) showing White Clay Creek and Newark. Source: David Rumsey Collection via oldmapsoline.org

 

 

 

First State Heritage Park Puts Spotlight on Delaware History In An Engaging and Informative Way

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The Dover Green is an ideal spot for a history lab, a place to better understand Delaware’s past.

June 22, 2013 – For a Wilmington University history lab our class ventured down to the Dover Green for some outdoor, experiential learning offered by the First State Heritage Park and the Division of Historical and Cultural Affairs.  In the course of over an hour on this beautiful June day, we strolled around the Dover Green as a knowledgeable interpreter, Chelsea, presented the “Slavery and Freedom Walking Tour.”

Our period attired guide talked about Delaware’s complicated position regarding freedom and slavery and the role of the First State during the Civil War and we were caught up in the lively program.  Along the way, we also examined the story of brave runaway slaves and how they made daring escapes.

After our walk in the urban park without boundaries linked historical sites to the subjects we are examining in the course, we’d stepped inside the old Delaware State House.  Almost as if the passage through that big door had represented a time machine, our group was in an earlier century as another educator, Gavin, shared additional stories about manumission and freedom.

Since the First State Heritage Park was organized as a state park in 2004, I’ve attended many of their programs.  They are always excellent, the staff is knowledgeable, and the programs are thoroughly researched.  These are some of the finest productions in the mid-Atlantic and it’s the type of learning opportunity one would expect to find in Williamsburg.  But that trip isn’t necessary as it’s provided for us right here in Dover and it is Delaware’s story.

It’s a great way to present engaging history lessons.  The agencies involved are to be congratulated for producing these most instructive programs and offering them in lively ways that encourage participation.  The park without boundaries is a great asset.  It does a fine job with a superb staff as they link the history and culture of the place that is the capital of the First State.

Also thank you Chelsea and Gavin for providing some experiential learning during our history lab.  You present a complicated historical narrative in an informative and engaging ways as you relate to your audience.

Chelsea, a First State Heritage Park guide, talks to the group about the Delaware narrative.
Chelsea, a First State Heritage Park guide, talks to the group about the Delaware narrative.

 

Thousands of Digital Delaware Picture Postcards Depict State History at Public Archives

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The Lighthouse & Keeper’s House at Taylor’s Bridge. Source: Delaware Public Archives, George Caley Postcard Collection

The Delaware Public Archives, a special collections institution that provides outstanding leadership in creating digital products to support the study of First State heritage, has just launched another valuable resource.  It is the George Luther Caley Postcard Collection, a group of almost 7,000 twentieth century images of the State and Delmarva.

George, a Smyrna resident, was a well-known genealogist, author and local historian and an avid postcard collector.  During his life-time, he assembled this valuable assortment of Delaware and Delmarva images.  When he passed away in 2005, his wife generously donated the photos to the Delaware Public Archives.  Now the professionals at this fine repository have made those images available to researchers on the World Wide Web.

Picture postcards caught on about 1906 and remained popular, sought after items throughout the 20th century.  Itinerant photographers traveled the area, from the Peninsula’s wide spots in the road to the larger towns, snapping up pictures of just about everything to supply the market.  When people vacationed, they mailed those tiny items back home.  Or when someone from Delaware corresponded with far away friends, they exchanged picture postcards of their towns.  Toward the end of the 20th century the items that had been stored away in trunks decades earlier started coming out of attics.  Those tiny pieces of cardboard became valuable, sought-after collectibles as local history enthusiasts snapped up the historical pictures of the region, many of them nearly 100-years old.

Now thanks to Mrs. Caley and the Delaware Public Archives this valuable  collection has been carefully preserved and it is available to a wide audience.

Click here to visit the postcard collection

The Caley Postcard Collection Homepage at the Delaware Public Archives website
The Caley Postcard Collection Homepage at the Delaware Public Archives website

Police Officer Slain 122 Years Ago Remembered in Service

May 2, 2013 — On a beautiful day in early May dozens of current and retired Wilmington Police Officers gathered with their assembled AR-10 rifles in Cathedral Cemetery to pay their respects to an officer who was murdered in the line of duty 122-years-ago.  They stood in a lonely corner of the burial ground, the potter’s field, near an unmarked grave where Patrolman Charles W. Schultz had been laid to rest in 1891.  While the tragic death caused a sensation at the time, the loss of the lawman was soon forgotten after he was lowered into his grave as memory faded into the mist of time.

But recently a retired member of the force, Layman Grant, picked up some research I had done on the overlooked crime, taking an interest in seeing that one of their own was properly memorialized.  The remembrance of the public servant and the dedication of a headstone was completed today.

Mournful notes from police bagpipes opened the service.  After welcoming guests and providing a narrative about the tragedy, Layman Grant, the master of ceremonies noted the words of the loss in 1891 “still echo today.”  The officer’s case was never solved. “Officer Schultz, along with nine other officers remain on patrol in the city of Wilmington.  We honor Officer Schultz as we honor all our fallen brothers and sisters of Wilmington during this memorial.”

After additional remarks by the chief, chaplains, and others the honor guard aimed into the air firing a 21-gun salute as the sad notes of taps sounded over the cemetery on this sunny Thursday in mid-spring.  Then a dispatcher’s voice crackled over the police radio with the final call, a law enforcement tradition.  “10-4 Officer Charles Schultz you are out of service at 11:59 hours on January 30, 1891.”  With the dispatcher’s voice fading, a police siren, somewhere off in the distance, broke the silence as the men and women of WPD reflected on the sacrifice of their slain comrade.

Thank you Wilmington PD retirees and current officer for making sure this public servant will never be forgotten.

Wilmington Police Officers gather for memorial service
Wilmington Police Officers gather for memorial service

 

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An old Wilmington Patrol car.
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Wilmington Officers stand at attention during final radio call.