Subject Digital Mapping Project
Speaker/Organiser
Maurice Nicholson
Date
February 10, 2016

Details

Maurice fully explained the British Library Project to georeference historical maps. BL are digitizing collections of old maps then releasing those for volunteers to georeference against a modern base map. The interface has the two maps side by side and you simply zoom in and then click on a number, typically 5, common reference / control points on each image. Once the extraneous legends on the map are clipped it is then saved and the two maps superimposed with the old map on top. The accuracy of the control points can be checked via a grid and any outliers adjusted. Any user can then view these maps and can adjust the transparency so the features of both maps can be visible. The details are at http://www.bl.uk/maps/. The viewer used is ArcGIS reader.

Maurice is the most active user in the whole project and has already referenced the available maps relating to Bedfordshire.

A similar more advanced project exists at the National Library of Scotland and they even hold very good 6inch OS maps of all of England.

He also spoke of the OpenStreetMap project which allows users to edit an online map and to insert shapes for buildings or any other feature.

Also described was the potential for using HistoryPin to include images on a map and to access data attributes of those images. https://www.historypin.org/en/queen-s-park-lives-local-history-group-bedfor/geo/37.77493,-122.419416,5/bounds/26.907232,-131.274396,47.253027,-113.564436 . It is even possible to add video clips to the tagged image. HistoryPin was used as part of the reporting of the Castle Close excavation. https://www.historypin.org/en/castle-close-s-collection/geo/52.225157,-0.552697,5/bounds/43.609093,-9.407677,59.442882,8.302283

He was working on one other project for recognizing the contribution of Queens Park residents to the Great War and had created an image where poppies were used at markers on a map created by Photoshop. He had not yet tackled the task of making the poppies into hotspots which then take you to the accumulated data attributes of that wounded / killed service man/woman. He is currently collecting data from CWGC and TNA records and can use coordinates from wartime trench maps to locate where men were buried.