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        Searching the Web for examples of how historians have used maps in their work turned out to be a frustrating exercise. Without a doubt, maps provide a indispensable tool at the disposal of historians in the course of their work, but examples of this are difficult to uncover. Even when maps are employed, few historians take advantage of the unique properties of the internet to convey the importance of these cartographic treasures as historical evidence. Without question, there are a lot maps on the internet. The vast majority are used to direct visitors to a location advertised on the Web. There are also a number of organizations, such as Tiger Mapping or MapQuest, that specialize in producing instant maps of various scale at the request of users. Many historic maps are available from museums and archives, but these collections often contain little or no historical context beyond what is already printed on the maps themselves. However, there are some good examples on the Web of historians using maps as primary sources.
      In  the fall of 2001, the Michigan Historical Center exhibited twenty-nine maps of nineteenth century Michigan from the collection of the Jesse Besser Museum in Alpena. The Michigan Historical Center then created an on-line exhibit called, “What’s Cool About Maps?” The curators of this internet “show” devised seven themes in order to generate interest in these maps as historical documents. In a section titled “‘Improving’ Michigan,” visitors are encouraged to compare the maps in the collection before and after the opening of New York’s Erie Canal in 1825. The curators contend that the comparison of these maps will show the “rapid development” as “settlers flooded into Michigan.” Unfortunately the on-line exhibit doesn’t contain the images of all twenty-nine maps, which would not only prove their point about “What’s Cool About Maps?,” but it would also make a “cool” Web site. Details of the maps that appeared at the onsite exhibition are listed on one Web page, but the Web site as a whole suffers because it falls somewhere between anelaborate advertisement and an incomplete educational tool.
      Change over time can also be seen in maps of a much smaller scale as with the development of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway (IMS). In 2000 the IMS reconfigured the infield of the famous 2 1/2 mile race track, which at one point had showcased a 9 hole golf course. Officials reconfigured the interior of the complex to accommodate a Formula One auto racing circuit. In this case the juxtaposition of maps allows historians of motorsports to trace the development over time of one racing’s most prestigious venues. Although, this wasn’t the reason for these maps. “Dan’s Indianapolis Motor Speedway Homepage” is really a web site dedicated to current auto racing and specifically to the Indianapolis 500. “Dan” gives no real reason for including more than one map of the speedway so applications of the juxtaposition of these maps are purely speculative. Interestingly, “Dan’s” site offers three maps but only one of them maps provides a orientation. All three maps are pictured with the start/finish line at the bottom which is common for racing maps. North is actually to the left. The map that does provide this orientation also has a small map in the legend locating Indianapolis in the State of Indiana. The small map of Indiana is oriented with North pointing up creating a odd contradiction within the larger map.
      In a Web site developed for a professor of English, Sabiha Ahmad of the University of Michigan created an interactive map of “Charles Booth’s 1889 descriptive map of London Poverty.” The color-coded map recorded the economic conditions of late-nineteenth century London and identifies a mix of inhabitants from the lowest class of “vicious, semi-criminal” people to the “well-to-do” and wealthy. The small map is colorful, but means little until a user clicks on one of 72 smaller rectangles. The fuzzy colors then begin to obtain greater definition. At this point the navigation becomes more sophisticated with controls that allow the visitor to navigate in any direction and even zoom in further to be able to read place names. The colorful grid remains on the Web page with the rectangle you are currently viewing shaded so you will remain properly oriented. Although I didn’t understand why an English professor might want a map of this sort, it is a terrific example of how the internet can enhance the use of maps as a documentary source.		  
     
 

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Vectors: Interactive Maps Homepage