Project Details

Geographical Information Systems (GIS) have enabled researchers to analyse, quantitatively, features shown on historic maps and explore statistically how maps differ over time (see Lloyd and Lilley 2009). However, scope exists to refine these techniques to address methodological issues as well as establishing how both qualitative and quantitative approaches reveal ‘hidden histories’ of cartography. To this end, the proposed research will make a substantive analytical contribution to an emerging global interest in the application of GIS in the history of cartography, which is particularly vibrant in Europe, North America and Asia. It will also offer new insights into the history of British mapping for the period from the thirteenth to the seventeenth centuries (with earlier mapping providing context, but not suited for detailed analysis). 

The project will: 

1. develop statistical and analytical methods for measuring how historic maps changed over time;

2. explore quantitative approaches in the history of cartography that complement existing qualitative historical approaches;

3. create a new interactive web-based resource allowing users access to and analysis of historic maps of Great Britain. 

These objectives will be completed through cross-disciplinary collaboration between academic and curatorial researchers at universities (Liverpool, Queen’s University Belfast, National University of Ireland Maynooth and Boston College) and the British Library (BL). The project steering group includes representatives from the British Library, Bodleian Library, National Library of Scotland and the National Library of Wales. 

These pages detail the project and its outcomes. The site is being updated regularly and by mid 2017 it will provide access to a diverse set of mapped outputs and results on the connections between historic maps of Britain. 

Reference

Lloyd, C. D. and K. D. Lilley (2009) Cartographic veracity in medieval mapping: analyzing geographical variation in the Gough Map of Great Britain. Annals of the Association of American Geographers, 99 (1), 27–48.