Ball State University Libraries Presents a White House Christmas

A White (House) Christmas Presentation Next Week in Downtown Muncie

Staff from the Ball State University Libraries Archives and Special Collections and GIS Research and Map Collection (GRMC) will be presenting a workshop about the history of decorating for Christmas at the White House.  The presentation, A White (House) Christmas, will be on Tuesday, November 28 from 6:30 to 7:30 pm in the Colonnade Room at the Cornerstone Center for the Arts (520 East Main Street).

The presentation will provide a history (including social history, renovations, and historic preservation) of the White House using maps, plans, and photographs.  Attendees will learn about the interesting decorating themes and the origins of the White House Christmas trees.  And Cody Sprunger, graduate assistant for the Archives and Special Collections, will provide behind-the-scenes details from his experiences decorating at the White House in 2016.

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

(Free parking is available at the Cornerstone Center for the Arts).

Thanksgiving Break Hours at Ball State University Libraries

Turkey Time:  Thanksgiving Break Hours for the GIS Research and Map Collection

The Ball State University Libraries GIS Research and Map Collection (GRMC) will be closed on Thursday, November 23 and Friday, November 24 for Thanksgiving break.  The GRMC will reopen at 8:00 on Monday, November 27.

Maps in the News: African Elephant Trophy Hunting

Fred Krakowiak drawing

World Wildlife Federation 

Maps in the News:  Hunting Elephants for Trophies

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service announced that it has lifted a 2014 Obama administration ban on importing sport-hunted trophies of elephants from Zimbabwe and Zambia.  In a statement to National Public Radio, the Service “determined that the hunting and management programs for African elephants in Zimbabwe and Zambia will enhance the survival of the species in the wild.”

The Humane Society of the U.S. plans to fight the lifting of the ban, claiming that Zimbabwe’s unstable government will not support an elephant management plan.  From Wayne Pacelle, the organization’s president and CEO: “Elephants are on the list of threatened species; the global community has rallied to stem the ivory trade; and now, the U.S. government is giving American trophy hunters the green light to kill them.”

National Geographic published maps (above, click to enlarge) related to sport-hunted trophies in the decade leading up to the ban in 2014.  Canada was the biggest source of trophy imports due to its close proximity and popular species such as black bears, grizzly bears, moose, and wolves.  South Africa was the second largest source with nearly 400,000 imports.

According to the report from National Geographic, in the decade from 2005 to 2014, “American trophy hunters imported nearly 32,500 lions, elephants, rhinos, buffalo, and leopards.”  1,892 African elephants were imported to the U.S. from Zimbabwe during that time.

In 2007 National Geographic published maps depicting the range of the African elephants in 1979 versus 2007.  And the next map shows the range of the elephant in 2012 just prior to the ban.

For more information about cartographic resources for threatened and endangered species, please contact the Ball State University Libraries GIS Research and Map Collection (GRMC) at 765-285-1097.

Ball State University Libraries Celebrates GIS Day November 15

Discover the World with GIS:  GIS Day Is Next Wednesday, November 15

Ball State University Libraries and the Digital Scholarship Lab is hosting GIS Day next Wednesday, November 15.  GIS Day is an international forum for users of Geographic Information Systems (GIS) technology.  GIS Day celebrates and showcases the real-world GIS applications that are improving society in numerous ways.

On Wednesday from 9:00 to 10:00 a.m. in the Digital Scholarship Lab in Bracken Library, visitors can meet Patricia Carbajales-Dale for a coffee hour.  Carbajales-Dale established and managed the Stanford University Geospatial Center for four years and was a GIS lecturer in the School of Earth Sciences.  She created and taught the first “GIS for Good” class, a service-learning program where students from different disciplines partnered with the United Nations.  Carbajales-Dale is currently the Co-Director of the Center of Excellence and Center for Geospatial Technologies at Clemson University.

Faculty and graduate students are invited to join the GIS Day Digital Feed, “Geospatial Support Services: A Tale of Two Campuses,” from 12:00 to 1:30 p.m. in the Digital Scholarship Lab.  (Please RSVP or contact Angela Gibson, University Libraries GIS Specialist, by 9:00 a.m. on November 13 to request a box lunch).

The annual GIS Day poster session is from 2:00 to 3:00 p.m. in the Schwartz Digital Complex.  Attendees can vote for the best poster and best Story Map, and prizes will be awarded.  (Poster and Story Map entries are due by Tuesday, November 14).

And Carbajales-Dale will present “GIS for Good: Serving Communities through Education” about her experience partnering with the United Nations.  This presentation is free and open to the public from 3:00 to 4:00 in Bracken Library room 104 across from the Schwartz Digital Complex.

For more information, please contact Angela Gibson in the GIS Research and Map Collection (GRMC) at 765-285-1097. 

This Day in History: Battle of Tippecanoe

Native American Heritage Month Map:  Tecumseh Was Here

On November 6, 1811, Governor William Henry Harrison of the Indiana Territory led American forces to the Native American village of Prophetstown, near what is now Battle Ground, Indiana.  On November 7, Shawnee warriors attacked Harrison’s army.  This “Battle of Tippecanoe” was won by the American forces after the warriors ran out of ammunition.  And Harrison’s men destroyed the abandoned village the next day.

Tenskwatawa, “the Prophet,” was the spiritual leader of the Shawnee.  His brother, Tecumseh, emerged as the military and political leader.  Tecumseh was recruiting warriors from other tribes to form a confederacy at the time of the battle.  He had urged his brother to wait for any military action. 

But when the U.S. declared war on Great Britain in the War of 1812, Tecumseh’s confederacy had finally been organized with the help of British allies.  Tecumseh’s warriors composed nearly half of the forces that captured Detroit from the U.S. during the war.  But when Tecumseh was killed at the Battle of the Thames in Canada, his confederacy weakened and finally disintegrated.

The Ball State University Libraries GIS Research and Map Collection (GRMC) is commemorating Native American Heritage Month by featuring a map about the life of Tecumseh as the “Map of the Month.”  The map, Tecumseh Was Here, includes important places in the life of the Shawnee leader, including his probable birthplace in Ohio.  Tetepachsit and Utenink were Native American villages near modern-day Muncie where Tecumseh was known to live (above, click to enlarge).

The map will be displayed in the front windows of the GRMC through the month of November.  The GRMC also provides a guide to other notable Native American cartographic resources for research and learning.

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