megan woods, national parks of boston
Proposal Type
Traditional Panel
Seeking
- Seeking Additional Presenters
- Seeking General Feedback and Interest
Related Topics
- Digital
- Government Historians
- Place
Abstract
Rooted in place-based learning and engagement, the National Park Service seeks to foster visitors’ connection to their site, whether a historic structure or a natural resource. How do we share stories that are not clearly visible on our landscapes, especially those of under-represented peoples? In an effort to help all Americans see themselves in the stories we tell, many NPS sites have been devoting time and resources to uncovering under-represented histories at their sites, using digital mapping tools to put them “back on the map.” This session will share the successes and struggles of creating NPS digital mapping projects to make these little-told stories visible and accessible to the public.
Description
In this session, we hope to highlight different digital mapping projects from National Park Service sites. Currently, we have two projects from the National Parks of Boston: Stories of the Great Migration and Mapping Women’s Suffrage in Boston. These projects show two different methods of engagement through digital maps to share under-told histories at the National Parks of Boston. “Stories of the Great Migration” features story-maps recounting the journeys of African American southern migrants who settled in Boston and worked at the Charlestown Navy Yard. “Mapping Women’s Suffrage in Boston” explores the people, places, organizations, and events of the suffrage movement in the city, with a particular aim to include the stories of African American women’s activism at the time.
The primary goal of this session will be to share the thought-process behind these mapping projects and how to use mapping tools to effectively tell stories and engage with audiences digitally. Secondary goals will be to examine the technical and interpretive challenges of mapping projects and to discuss the difficulties in bringing the stories represented in these mapping projects to light.
We are looking for two to three more panelists affiliated or collaborating with National Park Service sites who are working on projects that share under-told stories through digital mapping tools. We also hope to gauge general interest in this panel, and whether we should expand this topic beyond mapping to include NPS digital engagement.
If you have a direct offer of assistance, sensitive criticism, or wish to pass along someone’s contact information confidentially, please get in contact directly: Megan Woods, National Parks of Boston, [email protected]
All feedback and offers of assistance should be submitted by July 6, 2020. If you have general ideas or feedback to share, please feel free to use the comments feature below.
Hi Megan,
I really like this proposal, and the topics of your storymaps sound fascinating! If you have trouble rounding out your panel, you might want to expand the scope to include people doing this work outside the NPS.
Al
Thanks, Al, for your comment! We will keep that in mind as we think about forming the panel!
Hi Megan,
I’m in the process of training up in the ArcGIS StoryMap process myself, and trying to publish a Environmental History course project reviewing the Bears Ears National Monument controversy. I cannot outright state I would have the BENM StoryMap done by then, but I could certainly giv a prelimanary presentation to address some of the same issues you raise above.
It has been a long haul since I attended the NPS 3D documentation session in New Orleans three years ago–I could testify to just how hard it is to take this kind of “mapping” history for interpretation on. Good luck! Let me know if I can contribute to a must see forum for me!
You might also see if Leslie Moore, https://lesliesteltzmoore.com/, is available. She recently completed a historic context for the city of Fort Collins on the local women’s suffrage landscape. https://www.fcgov.com/historicpreservation/suffrage-2020