Mappings

Maps come in many forms. The maps - or "mappings," to use a deliberately (and frustratingly) vague term - produced through the Beautiful Spaces project come in many forms as well. 

In some cases I've annotated high-resolution copies of historical maps and images (in other words, I've drawn on them, marked them up, added my own text in one way or another in an effort to enrich the source or simply provide alternate ways of reading it). 

In other cases you will see my own maps: maps created using GIS software. Most of these are available both as still images and as interactive maps composed of several layers (see the "Original Maps," "Layer Library" and "Map Stories" sections).

Finally, the project contains several collections of historical maps: those used as sources of historical location data ("Source Maps" and "Cartographic Attestations"), and a small gallery of rather exquisite maps from the David Rumsey collection.

The idea is that, set against one another, these mappings tell important (and fascinating) stories about the evolution of geographic knowledge, cartographic technique, and cultural politics in the region. The maps are ubiquitous and intentionally so. They drive home the organizing principle of the entire project which is this: location matters.

I suppose one could argue (well, I myself argue) that this entire project is one giant mapping. For now, let's be content to call these particular endeavors "Mappings" and see how far that takes us in the practice of spatial history and the production of spatial-historical narratives.