Deep Mapping in the Rustbelt

Using GIS to Visualize the Past in the Present

Dan Trepal, Postdoctoral ResearcherUniversity of Michigan-Flint

Ways We Look at the Past: History

The Historical Record:

• Maps

• Photographs

• Directories and Gazetteers

• Official Records

• Tax records, Employee records, Census etc

• Letters, Diaries, Correspondence

The Archaeological Record

• Ancient– and modern

• Standing Ruins

• Buried Remains – Brownfields

• Artifactsmichiganradio.org

wsmh.com

Sagchip.org

mlive.com

Ways We Look at the Past: Archaeology

• Professional / Public

• Memory

• Identity

• Multivocal – often conflicting!

Ways We Look at the Past: Heritage

flintside.com

eastvilalgemagazine.com

GIS: Space as a Unifier

• Map and link different pieces of information in space

• Longitudinal (through time)

• Flexible visualization

• Digital Big Data

Building a Historical Spatial Data Infrastructure (HSDI)

Enterprise Geodatabases

“A spatial way to represent, or ground, the complex world that humanists study, with its myriad connections between people, places, and environments”

Bodenhamer, Corrigan, Harris, 2015.

• Deep mapping may be an answer to overcoming the limitations and challenges of earlier GIS-based approaches.

• Deep Mapping aims to create a fine detailed depiction of space and place through time

HSDI: Foundation for a Deep Map

Goal: Reveal the complex and contingent context of populations, places, and events within and across time and space

Deep Maps integrate multi-dimensional information about and representations of:

• Space

• Time

• Architecture

• Material Culture

• People (demography)

• Environment

• Community Knowledge

Above: digital deep map of Calumet (KeTT); Left: WSU students map the 8-Mile “race” wall as part of a digital storytelling project

HSDI: Foundation for a Deep Map

The Copper Country

• Unusually pure native Copper

• Mining boom beginning in 1840s

• Mining activity ceases by the 1960s

Keweenaw Time Traveler

The Historical Record 1888-1950:

• Maps

• City Directories

• User-Submitted Stories

Upcoming:

• Census

• School Records

• Employee records

• Sanitation Records

Building Publicly-accessible infrastructure

Total Records: 308,568Total variables recorded: 6,925,314

Keweenawhistory.com

Explore Historical Maps Search for People, Addresses, Places

2017 -1949 -1928 -1917 -1908 -1900 -1888 -1858 -

Keweenaw Time Traveler

User-Submitted Stories

Keweenawhistory.com

Explore Historical Maps Search for People, Addresses, Places

The Value of Deep Mapping• Move information out of the archives and into the public

space

• Spatially situate past environments within a contemporary physical context• Visualize change over time

• Populate the historical landscape

• Balance between expert-led research and community-driven multivocal heritage• Space for stories

Informed Decision-making: Cumulative Intensity of Industrial Land use: in London, Ontario

1888 2018Over 130 years of industrial activity

Trepal, Dan, and Don Lafreniere. "Understanding cumulative hazards in a rustbelt city:

Integrating GIS, archaeology, and spatial history." Urban Science 3, no. 3 (2019): 83.

“Lost” Places still exist:• Archaeological Remains

• Historical Record

• Heritage: Memory and Lived Experience

Floral Park

1954 1956 1967 1975 2019

Building a Flint HSDI• Web-Based Apps

• Explore ‘Lost’ Neighborhoods in Flint using historical imagery and maps

• Share Spatialized Stories

• Public Beta Version: January 2020

Thank You!

djtrepal@umich.edu

http://www.keweenawhistory.com/

Supported By: