The version sent yesterday was riddled with broken links, those are all fixed now. Apologies for the double-send!
Hello!
Even though it feels like things have been moving slowly, if I wait months between newsletters I suppose there is a actually a lot to report. So here's a quick summary, with more detail info below. Also, remember to reply directly to this email to get in touch with me, and there is an unsubscribe link at the end of this message.
As you can see from the map on the home page now, there are now a handful of editions outside of Louisiana. I've added these for a few people that have requested them, so a big thank you to Nolan (Des Moines), Tod (Salt Lake City), and Harrison (Brooklyn) for reaching out about adding content. Also, it's fun to see people working on new maps that other users have requested (looking at you, Sam!).
For the platform itself, I've been very gradually spinning it out into a standalone, open source application. I'm calling it Online Historical Map Georeferencer, or OHMG, and naming things is really tough so I'm open to suggestions. Some notable improvements are:
All of that said, this is still very much a side project for me, so I appreciate your patience while things move slowly. You can follow along, contribute, or discuss next steps through the code repo on GitHub: https://github.com/mradamcox/ohmg.
If you'd like to support this project, I would appreciate donations via PayPal to help offset server expenses: paypal.me/oldinsurancemaps. If you would like your donation to go toward new features and/or improvements on the site, just add a note.
You can also request new content be added, or, even better, request new maps and donate!
Another way you can support the project is to sponsor other users to perform the georeferencing work for your area. This could run through my own consulting company, Legion GIS, or you could contract directly with another user--a few have already expressed interest in doing this kind of work. Please get in touch with me if this interests you or your organization, and I will make the connections.
I've been thinking it would be wonderful for people in the New Orleans area that participated in the pilot project last year to meet each other. New people welcome too! This will be a laid-back and informal event, come whenever you can between 6:30 and 8:30. I'm very excited to try a brand new "a-thon"!
Also bring your laptop so we can work together on another New Orleans volume, 1896, vol. 1. This volume covers the French Quarter, what becomes Storyville a couple years later, Treme before I-10, and Bayou St. John/Fairgrounds (where I and a few of you live). So much to explore in it!
Please RSVP here, and if you want to come but this time/location doesn't work for you, please fill out the form anyway and leave a note.
Most importantly, these new layers will eventually be used in Southeast Louisiana HistoryForge, a new HistoryForge initiative based in our region. I'm including a full introduction to project below from the head of this project, Elizabeth Williams. It's something some of you may want to get involved in!
Southeast Louisiana HistoryForge is a recent partnership with HistoryForge and the Midlo Center for New Orleans Studies at University of New Orleans. HistoryForge initially began as a web-based, open-sourced platform that recruited volunteers of Tompkins County, NY to link archival information such as census enumerations, directories, photographs, and historical maps to the modern grid. Funded in part by the National Historical Publications and Records Commission (NHPRC) of the National Archives, History Forge’s volunteers, at the time of writing, linked upwards of 6,000 places with nearly 120,000 census records from the 1880, 1900-1950 censuses, as well as numerous photographs, advertisements, and other historical primary source documents.
HistoryForge recently received a grant from the National Endowment of the Humanities, and selected UNO’s Midlo Center as a testing partner for local communities in Orleans, St. John the Baptist, and Plaquemines parishes. Southeast Louisiana HistoryForge will focus on two initiatives – one urban, and one rural. The urban initiative will link historical archives to Storyville/Back of Town and Tremé neighborhoods, two areas that have been drastically altered due to urban renewal project in the early twentieth century. The rural initiative will focus on linking Freedmen’s Bureau archives and census data with historical plantations and freetowns, creating a tool that can not only assist with geneaology research, but also historical information on population movement, ancestral African American cemeteries, and linking unmarked cemeteries with descendant populations.
The Southeast Louisiana HistoryForge project is just beginning and looking for volunteers to digitize census records, georeference historical maps, locate historical photographs of people and places, among other opportunities. Check them out at sela.historyforge.net, and check often for updates, as the platform is still in its initial stages. If you have any questions, contact Elizabeth Williams at elizabeth.v.williams@gmail.com.
As always, thanks for reading and thanks for your continued interest. Looking forward to seeing some of you on the 23rd!
Adam