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.

Holiday Hours at Ball State University Libraries

National Geographic Happiest Places, 2015

(Click to enlarge)

The World of Santa Claus, GRMC

Cable TV Your state's favorite holiday movie

Happy Holiday Hours in the Map Collection

The Ball State University Libraries’ GIS Research and Map Collection (GRMC) will be open regular hours 8:00 to 5:00 on Monday, December 18 through Thursday, December 21.  On Friday, December 22 the GRMC will be open 8:00 to 3:00 pm.

The GRMC will be closed on Monday, December 25 and Tuesday, December 26.  The GRMC will have regular hours on Wednesday, December 27 and Thursday, December 28.  And on Friday, December 29 the GRMC will be open from 8:00 to 3:00 pm.  The GRMC will be closed on New Year’s Day and reopen for regular hours again on January 2, 2018.

Maps in the News: Bears Ears and Ventura Wildfire

CNN

New York Times

Patagonia REI

Ventura County Fire Department

Places in the News:  Bears Ears and Ventura

The Ball State University Libraries GIS Research and Map Collection (GRMC) provides access to thousands of cartographic resources from the Collection that may be used for research and learning projects.  Staff of the GRMC also locate and provide access to online cartographic resources that may be used as visual aids for papers and presentations related to current events and social topics, and online maps are produced by a large variety of sources.

News sites such as The New York Times (above, click to enlarge), Washington Post, Vox, CNN, and Slate create useful maps that depict current issues.  And online mapping sites like ESRI and Metrocosm offer unique visual depictions of news events.  However, sometimes the research of cartographic resources leads to new sources—like outdoor sports clothing and gear designer Patagonia.

When President Trump announced the elimination of some of the protected land at the Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monuments, Patagonia REI protested the cuts on their Web page.  The company published maps (above) to show the size of the monuments before and after the cuts.  And the Web page includes statistics related to oil and gas development on public lands.

Governmental social media accounts can also be a valuable resources for the latest maps related to natural disasters and other emergencies.  Local governments often employ the use of Geographic Information Systems (GIS) for tracking and planning emergency response.  For example, the Ventura County Fire Department posts updated maps related to the Thomas Fire on December 5, 2017.

Other government agencies like the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) also publish useful maps on their Web pages and social media accounts.  These current events maps are downloaded and archived by the GRMC for use in classroom research and learning.

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

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.