The image and link above are for the map that I chose to help georectify on the David Rumsey map collection. There appear to be many possibilities and interesting things to explore after having georectified the map. The one that immediately jumps out to me is how different areas were perceived at the making of the map. Since we can now see what the area actually looks like, we can examine which areas are more exaggerated or pronounced, like where the land juts out to the water, or where rivers meet the sea; in these places on the map, some of these areas are bigger or more aggressive than reality, which may indicate importance/significance at the time. One key problem with georectifying involves the same issue: by lining up different points on the map you lose some of the exaggerations or skews in the original map that may be meaningful and make old maps more valuable than our present-day ones. This method would also not work very well for really old maps, as the entire geography and topography may have likely changed between when the map was made and the present. This definitely challenged my understanding of the earlier spatial DH projects I explored as it makes me question how much the map was changed and/or skewed to adhere to present-day geography.
2 thoughts on “Blog Post Week 5”
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Wow! It’s super cool how your map shows how the coastline has changed over the years, that seems very difficult to georeference. I agree that this method of spatial analysis would not work well with old maps.
I think it’s a really valuable point that some of the most important features of certain maps are not actually the ones that are the most geographically accurate. Instead the person making the map also has the ability to make artistic decisions in order to help make sure his map conveys the meaning he wants it to. I had never really thought about map making as more of an art form like that, rather than an exact science but your post has helped me broaden my perspective in that way.