adding map views of author journeys instead of photos
DiscussieAuthor and venue pictures
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1billsearth
Many true adventure travel books describe dangerous journeys into lands not well known at the time by the authors. Usually these books have no or just rudimentary maps, or innaccurate maps with them. An internet search does not normally find the detailed or accurate route..(Mungo Parks searching for the source of the Tigris River in 1795, Mary Kingsley traveling among cannibals in "French Congo in the late 1800s, Freya Stark sneaking into "Persia" around 1930.)
With modern mapping software and modern detailed accurate base maps, it is possible in at least these three cases, to make a far more detailed and accurate route map than can be found in the texts or on the internet.
I am going to post some improved routes for these three authors and am almost done with all three. However it might be more benefit if they were accessible through a site like Library thing, sort of like an author image on the author site, or through a University's geography, history, or education department.
Short routes such as Freya Stark's trips into Persia could be done in a series of maybe just three map panels. Mungo Park's route would take 10 to 30 panels to cover his route in accurate detail, so maybe not as suitable to Library Thing.
For trips like Parks, I think maybe some joint effort with the local University where I took a lot of graduate level geography courses might be the better approach for getting all those panels available to others.
Any thoughts?
With modern mapping software and modern detailed accurate base maps, it is possible in at least these three cases, to make a far more detailed and accurate route map than can be found in the texts or on the internet.
I am going to post some improved routes for these three authors and am almost done with all three. However it might be more benefit if they were accessible through a site like Library thing, sort of like an author image on the author site, or through a University's geography, history, or education department.
Short routes such as Freya Stark's trips into Persia could be done in a series of maybe just three map panels. Mungo Park's route would take 10 to 30 panels to cover his route in accurate detail, so maybe not as suitable to Library Thing.
For trips like Parks, I think maybe some joint effort with the local University where I took a lot of graduate level geography courses might be the better approach for getting all those panels available to others.
Any thoughts?
2bernsad
I would love to see something like this, I like reading travel and exploration books and have often wondered about some means of mapping them. Do you have some suggestions about the procedure or is that your trade secret?
When you say you are "going to post some improved routes for these three authors", where are you planning on posting, apart from hoping to get them on LT, I would like to take a look?
When you say you are "going to post some improved routes for these three authors", where are you planning on posting, apart from hoping to get them on LT, I would like to take a look?
3billsearth
There are no trade secrets. I have been mapping for decades in the petroleum exploration profession. Then one day, a sales rep. came by and showed us a software that was more robust, powerful, and flexible than what we in the oil industry normally use. With that software, ArcGis, I have branched out to mapping other things, such as juniper extent in my county, bird distribution in my state, property maps with many layers and attributes, 3D maps, spatial changes over time, and so forth.
With this software, that I have been using for over a decade now I can do anything. For travelleer's routes, I bring in other base maps, some old, some recent, some detailed, some with alternative spellings of rivers and towns. With multiple base maps available, it is possible to reconstruct just about any route, especially if the author's description of the travels is detailed, or there is a rudimentary map made back in the era of the travels.
Once the route is made accurate, there is the detail of re-creating an accurate topography to go under the route layer that does not have things that did not exist back then, such as asphalt roads, airports, man-made reservoirs and so on. That's a simple process but not always quickly of cheaply done.
Finally, any finished map, or segments of it, can be exported, usually as a PDF but alternatively as a raster view into a web page. Those I will post first on my personal website. Eventually, I would like to get the academic world into doing the same thing and posting old routes on a university site. I have begun stirring some interest through the geography department of Texas State University where I took some upper level mapping classes a few years back.
Results are still maybe a month off for my first three routes. Whether the university gets enthused enough to follow through with an effort on their own where I can simply contribute my content, remains to be seen. Meanwhile, I thought perhaps a tweak in LibraryThing might allow a link to a raster or PDF map of routes travelled by specific authors, stored on LibraryThing servers rather than my website. To do that, LibraryThing would have to store image or PDF files on the order of 2 to 8mb in file size, rather than the 30kb to 1mb file size that is adequate for images of authors.
Ideally, a link to a route map would be found on a web page discussing the author's book. Then clicking on that link would bring up a view of the entire route. Ideally, a person should then be able to click on any portion of that route and see a much more detailed view of just that portion, with text labels of what occured or was seen from the different parts of that detailed portion, such as "companion pulled from canoe by crocodile here on 5/15/1796" or whatever.
That's the general idea but right now I'm still in the stage of getting the accurate route pinned down from the texts and the various maps availalble to me. I am pleased to see that I have been able to add a lot of detail and accuracy to what has been included in the texts and even on the internet in general.
With this software, that I have been using for over a decade now I can do anything. For travelleer's routes, I bring in other base maps, some old, some recent, some detailed, some with alternative spellings of rivers and towns. With multiple base maps available, it is possible to reconstruct just about any route, especially if the author's description of the travels is detailed, or there is a rudimentary map made back in the era of the travels.
Once the route is made accurate, there is the detail of re-creating an accurate topography to go under the route layer that does not have things that did not exist back then, such as asphalt roads, airports, man-made reservoirs and so on. That's a simple process but not always quickly of cheaply done.
Finally, any finished map, or segments of it, can be exported, usually as a PDF but alternatively as a raster view into a web page. Those I will post first on my personal website. Eventually, I would like to get the academic world into doing the same thing and posting old routes on a university site. I have begun stirring some interest through the geography department of Texas State University where I took some upper level mapping classes a few years back.
Results are still maybe a month off for my first three routes. Whether the university gets enthused enough to follow through with an effort on their own where I can simply contribute my content, remains to be seen. Meanwhile, I thought perhaps a tweak in LibraryThing might allow a link to a raster or PDF map of routes travelled by specific authors, stored on LibraryThing servers rather than my website. To do that, LibraryThing would have to store image or PDF files on the order of 2 to 8mb in file size, rather than the 30kb to 1mb file size that is adequate for images of authors.
Ideally, a link to a route map would be found on a web page discussing the author's book. Then clicking on that link would bring up a view of the entire route. Ideally, a person should then be able to click on any portion of that route and see a much more detailed view of just that portion, with text labels of what occured or was seen from the different parts of that detailed portion, such as "companion pulled from canoe by crocodile here on 5/15/1796" or whatever.
That's the general idea but right now I'm still in the stage of getting the accurate route pinned down from the texts and the various maps availalble to me. I am pleased to see that I have been able to add a lot of detail and accuracy to what has been included in the texts and even on the internet in general.
42wonderY
I'm interested in seeing your work, once posted. My daughter is just now reading Mary Kingsley's book.
Can I suggest Teddy Roosevelt's adventures, such as A Book-Lover's Holidays in the Open http://www.librarything.com/work/1110040/book/61952895
for a future project? (touchstone not working)
Can I suggest Teddy Roosevelt's adventures, such as A Book-Lover's Holidays in the Open http://www.librarything.com/work/1110040/book/61952895
for a future project? (touchstone not working)
5r.orrison
This is such a cool idea. A live link field in the Common Knowledge on the work would seem like a good place, though it might be a tempting target for spammers.
Here's another take on what you're talking about, using Google Earth to map Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption:
http://www.gearthblog.com/blog/archives/2011/01/unbroken_louis_zamperinis_journe...
Here's another take on what you're talking about, using Google Earth to map Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption:
http://www.gearthblog.com/blog/archives/2011/01/unbroken_louis_zamperinis_journe...
