Blog Week 5

My rectified map used a map of the City of Northfield, Minnesota. This map had to be scanned to align correctly with the historical and modern maps. I chose the historical map from the Minnesota Digital Library, which allowed for me to observe not only Northfield but also other various locations within the state. This process made the labor process behind digital humanities projects more relevant as I was able to manually align the maps using specific landmarks that matched, ensuring the visual was clearly matched. I really enjoyed the tools like Old Maps Online because it was easy to decipher the two maps and see intergenerational differences.

From the map page, the rectified map can be accessed in a multitude of various ways, including interactive modes that differ from a typical static image which provides a better engagement experience for the viewer. Once the map is georectified, the possibilities for map usage are plentiful. This includes outlining roads, mountains, water, and other significant landmarks that add depth to the map. This can help specialize the map and add more context for specific usage which makes the map more helpful than vague landmarks that aren’t explained clearly by the creator.

I found this experience to be very valuable, and even with the various benefits of georeferencing, there are admittedly concerns I still have. These maps still can contain distortions of images, which can create a false experience for the audience. This is problematic because an uneducated audience is then under a false sense of reality, which can create various problems through real-world application. We see this with world maps all the time, which gives a false sense of scale and creates norms of countries and space that aren’t fully true. This method would not be appropriate for using theological maps because they lose meaning when utilizing the modern coordinate and scale systems.