Trudi Abel, History, Arts & Sciences

Project Description

“How do they connect? The past and the present?”

CIT provided Trudi Abel with funding and student support to create digital versions of historic maps of Durham using Google Earth. Using high quality digital copies of maps from the late 1800’s, Abel worked with CIT staff to figure out the best methods for converting, importing and placing images as overlays into Google Earth. The “georectification” of these maps presented several obstacles, requiring the team to consult with local Durham mapping and historical experts to complete the placement and positioning of these maps.

Several of the resulting digital maps have recently been added to Abel’s ongoing project – the Digital Durham website. Google Earth files can be downloaded and opened on users’ computers for exploration. Visitors to the site can also access several high resolution screen captures of the map overlays without the need to open or use Google Earth. The resulting maps can also be used in Abel’s work with Duke and local high school students – providing a basis for student research projects. Audio pieces created on iPods, geotagged photography and even short video clips can be linked directly to their historical and/or present-day locations.

“I think these maps will help users visualize an industrializing city and gain a better understanding of the process of urbanization in this New South community.”

Click here to view the Digital Durham page for Sanborn 1884

Click here to view the Digital Durham page for Sanborn 1888

Presentations

The following video is an excerpt from the presentation “Everybody’s Doing It: Web-based Visualizations and Mashups in the Social Sciences” which CIT consultant Shawn Miller gave at Duke’s Visualization Forum in September 2008. The full video is available from the Visualization Forum website.

Trudi Abel also presented about the project and the larger Digital Durham project at a Visualization Forum in March 2009. The video from her talk is available here.

Abel and Miller discussed future possibilities for the Digital Durham project at Duke’s Tech and New Media Tuesdays forum. The presentation is accessible on iTunesU.

Articles about the project

The Digital Durham Project: Creating Community through History, Technology, and Service Learning by Trudi Abel

Duke News article: New Map Collaboration Helps Tell Story of Durham’s History

MyNC.com article: Duke, Durham Merge Google Earth technology with historic city maps

Duke Research Blog: Seeing Through Time: Historic Maps, Google Earth, and the Transformation of Durham

Independent article: What Google Earth doesn’t show you: A small movement of alternative mapmakers seek to revolutionize our understanding of the Triangle and the world

Project Started: May 4, 2007
Funding: $1650

Susan Thorne, Associate Professor, History, Arts & Sciences

Students in the new course “Preparing the Portfolio for Preliminary Certification” author and publish web based electronic portfolios. This course supports an innovation in the history department’s approach to preliminary certification of PhD candidates. In place of the conventional written or oral exam, students are required to submit portfolios of work that display the student’s engagement with their three or four fields of specialization as well as their teaching expertise; the portfolio is modeled on the tenure dossier. This course is optional in this, its first year, but it will be required of all graduate students in either their second or third year. The objectives for the course are for students to:

• learn how to write a dissertation prospectus and/or grant proposal
• learn how to revise papers produced in classes and independent studies for publication in peer-reviewed journals.
• learn how to display their work in a web-based portfolio format

A CIT consultant worked closely with Thorne to develop a portfolio template and to provide training for students in web authoring.

Project start date: 5/10/2006
Funding awarded: $5,000

Sucheta Mazumdar, Associate Professor, History

Project Description

Mazumdar created a rich set of course materials, including images and film clips, to complement the lectures and readings for the courses (History 172B, China and the West, and History 172C, China from Antiquity to 1400). The project also explored evaluation tools as a method to gauge student background knowledge about China at the beginning of the course, how much they learned during the semester, and ways in which the course affected their perceptions of China at the end.

Project start date: 05/01/04
Funding awarded: $1,250