Geography Students Map Muncie History

The Story of the Geography of Lost Muncie

Muncie residents and students of history, geography, and architecture will be interested in a community program that will identify some of the unique businesses and landmarks in the city’s past.  Finding Lost Muncie: Making Story Maps of the Past will offer a discussion about Muncie’s past—including some amazing architecture, restaurants, theaters, churches, and booming factories lost to the wrecking ball—and how it can be visualized on a map.

Jeff Koenker of the Ball State University Libraries administrates the popular Lost Muncie Facebook page that provides historic photographs and advertisements of people, places, and things of Muncie’s past.  Dr. Jorn Seemann, Assistant Professor in the Department of Geography, created a project where his cartography students would locate some of the places from the page using Story Map.

ESRI Story Maps allow users to combine authoritative maps with narrative text, images, and multimedia content.  The application “makes it easy to harness the power of maps and geography to tell your story.”  Dr. Seemann’s students began creating maps about the places on the Lost Muncie site and will demonstrate some of the features of the mapping application.

The program will be at the Cornerstone Center for the Arts on Wednesday, April 25 from 6:30 to 8:00 pm.  The event is sponsored by the Delaware County Historical Society and the Ball State University Department of Geography.

The Cornerstone Center for the Arts is located at 520 East Main Street, and free parking is available.

Map Celebrating the Life of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Available from Ball State University Libraries

Map of the Life of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

Today marks the 50^th anniversary of the death of civil rights leader Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.  The Ball State University Libraries GIS Research and Map Collection (GRMC) created this commemorative map (click to enlarge) about his life.  The map provides a timeline of important events and identifies their locations throughout the United States.  The map is available for circulation from the GRMC.

For more information about cartographic resources, please contact the GRMC at 765-285-1097.

Women's History Maps Program at Cornerstone Center for the Arts

Muncie Maps Program:  Celebrating Women Who Write

 

The Ball State University Libraries’ GIS Research and Map Collection (GRMC) on the second floor of Bracken Library is celebrating Women’s History Month with a public presentation in downtown Muncie.  Chick Lit: Mapping the Lives of Inspiring Female Authors will be presented at the Cornerstone Center for the Arts (520 East Main Street) on Tuesday, March 20 from 6:30 to 7:30 pm in the Colonnade Room.

This presentation will feature maps depicting the lives of female authors from Muncie, the state of Indiana, and around the world.  The program includes maps about famous authors Louisa May Alcott, Jane Austen, J.K. Rowling, Maya Angelou, and even Muncie’s own Emily Kimbrough.  But the program also includes lesser known authors and women whose work was never published in their lifetime.

The GRMC also has an exhibit of a map of famous women’s rights activists in its front windows on the balcony of Bracken Library.  And the GRMC created a special collection of online maps to celebrate Women’s History Month.  (Type “women in the world map” in the search box to access the available cartographic resources).

The presentation is free and open to the public and suitable for all ages.  Free parking is available.  For more information, please contact the GRMC at 765-285-1097.



Black History Month Maps Program in Muncie

Great Escapes: Black History Month Maps Program in Muncie

The Ball State University Libraries GIS Research and Map Collection (GRMC) will be presenting a program featuring maps celebrating Black History Month.  The program will be on Thursday, February 15 from 6:30 to 7:30 at the Cornerstone Center for the Arts in downtown Muncie.

The class, Heroes of Black History: Great Escapes, will use maps to chronicle the stories of men and women who escaped from slavery in the South prior to the Civil War, including Frederick Douglass, Eliza Harris, and Margaret Garner, whose story inspired the Toni Morrison novel Beloved.  A map about the best known “conductor” of the Underground Railroad, Harriet Tubman, will also be featured.  And attendees can learn about how Henry “Box” Brown earned his nickname.

The class is free and open to the public.  The Cornerstone Center for the Arts is located at 520 East Main Street, and the program is in the Colonnade Room.  Free parking is available on the north side of the building.

For more information, please contact the GRMC at 765-285-1097.

Hand-Drawn Artistic Maps at Ball State University Libraries

Putting “ART” in CARTography

The Ball State University Libraries’ Digital Media Repository (DMR) provides online access to a range of digitized primary source materials, including historic films and video, oral histories, diaries, photographs, cartographic resources, and artwork.  The GIS Research and Map Collection (GRMC) has provided access to hundreds of historic maps from its collection via the repository.  But the newest DMR collection from the GRMC is a set of hand-drawn maps created by Ball State University students.

The name of this latest collection is Maps Fictional and Actual: Mapping Projects from Drawing 1.  The maps were created by students in the fall semester 2017 Drawing 1 class.  Heidi Jensen, Associate Professor in the Ball State University School of Art, created this unique project for her students:  After visiting the GRMC in Bracken Library and reviewing hundreds of maps, create an artistic map—either of an actual or fictional place.  The maps can be viewed or downloaded from the DMR for use in educational research and learning.

The original art was exhibited at the Muncie DWNTWN First Thursday Arts Walk in November 2017 at Twin Archer Brew Pub in conjunction with student-created maps from the Departments of Architecture and Geography.  This is the second year Twin Archer hosted a cartographic art exhibit for Ball State University students.

The artistic maps created in the fall of 2016 are also part of a DMR Collection called Home.  These watercolor maps were created by students studying with Hannah Barnes, Associate Professor in the School of Art.

The GRMC accepts donations of unique maps for the Collection, including hand-drawn and other types of original cartographic works.  For more information about any of these projects, please contact the GRMC at 765-285-1097.

Celebrating Black History Month with Maps

Ball Brothers band, Muncie

Other Side of Middletown Photographs

Excerpt of Great Escape: The Unbelievable Story of Henry Brown

Mignonette Club of Muncie

Other Side of Middletown Photographs

Excerpt from Black History: Moments that Changed the World

Ezzard  Charles and John Bragg

Other Side of Middletown Photographs

Excerpt from Fashion Forward: The Life of Ann Cole Lowe, 

the First African-American High-Fashion Designer

Hurley Goodall, Muncie

Great Moments in Black History on the Map

On this day in 1865, President Abraham Lincoln signed a Joint Resolution submitting to the states the proposed 13^th Amendment to the Constitution.  The 13^th Amendment formally abolished slavery in the United States.  In December of that year, the 13^th Amendment was ratified. 

The Ball State University Libraries GIS Research and Map Collection (GRMC) created a new collection of custom maps in celebration of Black History Month.  The first map in the series, Great Escape: The Unbelievable Story of Henry Brown, depicts important places in the life of Henry “Box” Brown.  The map (above, click to enlarge) is based on the children’s book Henry’s Freedom Box: A True Story from the Underground Railroad by Ellen Levine and illustrated by Kadir Nelson (available from the Educational Technology and Resources Collection in the lower level of Bracken Library).  The book details the story of Henry “Box” Brown, who mailed himself in a box from Virginia to Philadelphia to escape slavery.  (This map will be displayed in the front windows of the GRMC through February).

The other series maps will be featured in a community presentation at the Cornerstone Center for the Arts.  Heroes of Black History: Great Escapes will chronicle the stories about men and women who escaped from slavery in the South prior to the Civil War, including Frederick Douglass and Margaret Garner, whose story inspired the Toni Morrison novel Beloved.  The presentation will be held in the Colonnade Room at the Cornerstone Center on Thursday, February 18 from 6:30 to 7:30 pm.

The GRMC includes a large collection of unique maps describing the people, places, and important events in African-American history.  Black History: Moments that Changed the World is a map in the GRMC based on the Charles R. Smith, Jr. book, 28 Days: Moments in Black History that Changed the World.  This map was created in 2017 and features some of the watershed moments in African-American history, like the birthplace of Harriet Tubman, Shirley Chisholm, and Marian Anderson and the story of Dr. Daniel Hale Williams, who founded the first African American-owned hospital in the country.

The GRMC also has custom maps about the Negro League Baseball teams, the lives of Martin Luther King, Jr., Sojourner Truth, and Madam C.J. Walker.  And the GRMC created custom maps about lesser known yet important people in African-American history like civil rights activist Fannie Lou Hamer and designer Ann Cole Lowe. 

The GRMC also created a map of Muncie during the 1950’s that highlights African American-owned businesses.  The map is based on the book A History of Negroes in Muncie by local historian Hurley Goodall and J. Paul Mitchell.  (This book is available from the General Collection or Archives and Special Collections in Bracken Library).  Another map created by the GRMC identifies important events in Indiana’s civil rights history.  All of the maps circulate from the GRMC and may be used for classroom research and exhibits.  (Digital copies of the maps are available upon request).

For more information about the Cornerstone Center for the Arts Black History Month program or any of the cartographic resources from the GRMC, please contact Melissa Gentry at 765-285-1097.

(Other Side of Middletown Photographs Collection available here).

Maps of Haiti Available from Ball State University Library

Maps in the News:  Haiti

Today marks the eighth anniversary of the deadly earthquake that hit Haiti in January of 2010.  The Ball State University Libraries GIS Research and Map Collection (GRMC) includes a variety of maps of Haiti and the island of Hispaniola.

Mapa de la Isla de Santo Domingo y Haiti por el General Cashmiro n de Moya (Map of Santo Domingo and Haiti by General Cashmiro de Moya) is displayed on the front wall of the GRMC (above, click to enlarge).  The map was created by General Casimiro De Moya in 1905 and corresponds with the U.S. control of Dominican customs during Theodore Roosevelt’s presidency.  De Moya was a politician and military leader in the Dominican Republic.  This was the first detailed map of the island of Hispaniola.

The GRMC also has a reproduction map of the island of Hispaniola published in 1722.  The map depicts the topography of the island in color relief.  Hispaniola: Urban and Rural Population Map was published in 1956 and presents the population of Haiti and the Dominican Republic.

The map of Port-au-Prince and Petion-Ville, Haiti (above) is a guide map published in 1978.  The map was created by the Nader Art Gallery in Port-au-Prince and includes the art of many different Haitians.  It identifies points of interest like the U.S. Embassy, cathedrals, museums, theaters, and hotels with distances to the Nader Gallery show room.

Nautical charts included in the GRMC also depict the coastline of Haiti.  A large collection of maps and atlases of the Caribbean islands detail the larger area.  Maps showing seismic activity in the region are also available in the GRMC.  Maps related to the Haiti earthquake are also available in digital format from the GRMC.  For example, the U.S. Geological Survey created the map showing the over two million displaced people in Haiti (above) and maintains a Web page related to the earthquake.

Maps from the GRMC circulate for two weeks or longer.  Please contact the GRMC at 765-285-1097 for more information.

GRMC Closed on Monday, January 15

Holiday Hours at Ball State University Libraries GIS Research and Map Collection

The Ball State University Libraries GIS Research and Map Collection (GRMC) on the second floor of Bracken Library will be closed on Monday, January 15 for the Martin Luther King, Jr. Holiday.  Bracken Library, however, will be open on Monday from 7:00 am to 3:00 am.

The GRMC will reopen at 8:00 am on Tuesday, January 16.

El Salvador and Immigration Maps Available from Ball State University Libraries

Maps in the News:  El Salvador

The Trump administration announced on Monday that nearly 200,000 people from El Salvador who have lived in the United States for more than a decade must leave the country.  The administration is giving the immigrants until September of 2019 before they could face deportation.

The immigrants from El Salvador were part of the humanitarian program—Temporary Protected Status.  This program allows immigrants from designated countries to live and work (and pay taxes) in the U.S. without fear of deportation.  The program was created by President George Bush in 1990, and immigrants from El Salvador were included after devastating earthquakes in 2001.  Over the next 15 years, President George W. Bush and President Obama extended the protection status.

The Ball State University Libraries GIS Research and Map Collection (GRMC) includes a unique collection of maps of El Salvador.  The map above (top, click to enlarge) is called El Salvador: The Struggle for Rural Control and was published in 1991 near the end of the country’s 13-year civil war.  The map identifies areas controlled by the rebel group, the Farabundo Marti National Liberation Front (FMLN).  The red- and green-shaded areas depict areas under the control of the FMLN.  And government army units are shown with the soldier icon.

The GRMC also includes ortho-photographic maps of El Salvador at a scale of 1:5000 meters (above).  These maps identify important buildings in red, railways with the black line, and main roads with a red line.  The maps were published by the National Geographic Institute of the Ministry of Public Works in Sal Salvador.

The tourist map (above) identifies the locations of Pre-Columbian ruins and historical sites, skiing and fishing areas, and beaches throughout the country.  El Salvador’s numerous volcanoes and mountains are also depicted.  The map was published by the El Salvador Tourist Commission and also includes an inset map showing travel times to U.S. cities.

The GRMC also maintains a repository of digital maps related to current events and social topics that may be used as visual aids for research papers and learning projects.  The map, Immigration Enforcement and Sanctuary Cities, was published by the Catholic Legal Immigration Network in 2016.  The Missing Migrants Project published the map showing migrant deaths on world borders from January through September 2014.

Migration Policy Institute’s Data Hub includes maps showing the U.S. immigrant population by state and county, maps related to the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA), and top immigrant populations by state and cities.  The map above identifies where most of the immigrants from El Salvador are located in the United States.

The digital collection of maps also includes large-scale maps that can be printed using the plotters in the GRMC, or the maps may be projected digitally for presentations.  This collection also includes posters that can be used for presentations about specific countries.

For more information about the maps in the GRMC or using maps as visual aids in research and learning, please contact Melissa Gentry at 765-285-1097.