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.