Maps can tell us a lot of information, like what is nearby and how to get from here to there. But maps have potential to tell us so much more, about how a place is connected and the history behind it. By overlaying maps, we can compare a place then and now, and learn about how it’s changed. Allmaps, a free online mapping tool, allows users to overlay their own maps and compare two depictions of the same place.
I made my own Allmaps project with an overlaid map of Northfield, MN from the Minnesota Digital Library. It was cool to go through the process-setting anchor points by finding the same exact place in both maps, seeing my map align with the underlain map, and then seeing how the maps are similar and different at the end. I wouldn’t say that this project changed my understanding of spatial DH projects we explored earlier in the week, but I would say that I understand georeferencing better now. On the Map page, it is possible to change the opacity and to remove the background which can aid the viewer in seeing both the over and under laid maps. I think this is a particularly useful tool to see how things have changed, especially in a map like mine where the time difference is significant.
One limitation to georeferencing is that you can never see both maps perfectly because they are either both slightly compromised or one is completely hidden. Additionally, a viewer may understand two time separated maps as consequent when there were actually variations in between that are not displayed. For example, a river that shifts west from time A to time C may have momentarily shifted east at some time B, but a viewer of a georeferenced map would not have the full story.
This tool could be well applied in projects involving before/ after phases, like before a battle and after a battle, or something of the like. I actually think that as I’ve used it, the map tells an incomplete story because the time gap is about 110 years. If the viewer is only interested in Northfield from 1915 and 2025, this is a great resource but otherwise not so much.
