I’m by no means an expert, but I do refer to myself as SCARC’s resident “map nut.” Maps are like onions (or parfaits, if you will): each layer peels back a little piece of the historical narrative. Place names can provide insight into the way people of the past saw their world. The features highlighted or absent from a map can tell you the value placed on aspects of the physical environment. Items like Sanborn maps can tell you how cities grew and developed, and what features of the land and society affected that growth.
In my work as the Public Services Unit Supervisor in SCARC, I help researchers of all kinds, from Corvallis and around the world, access our materials, and introduce them to the tricks, tips, and tools to navigate our research portals. I always feel honored and humbled to be invited into their research processes, and whenever I can I try to highlight the products of their work.
Cases en pointe are the four digital databases in this post. They all – to the surprise of no one who knows me – map aspects of the built and natural environment, from the vantage point of the past and the present.
One quick item of note: one of the guiding principles of the archival profession is to protect all users’ right to privacy by maintaining the confidentiality of their research. To that end, the names of researchers have been omitted from this post in all except one case; only information about their research outcome is included.
Dan Blanchard, Horticulture Instructor and Curator of Living Plant Collections for OSU Campus Arboretum, began work on OSU’s Arboretum Web Map as a graduate student in 2022. As a result of his work, OSU was granted ArbNet Level II Arboretum Accreditation in 2023.
Since then, Dan and a number of dedicated student assistants have continued to document additional trees, and more are added to the web map frequently. To date, 630 trees have been mapped on OSU’s main campus in Corvallis, including two blue atlas cedars planted in 1892, the giant sequoias in the Memorial Union quad, and OSU’s very own “moon tree” (located on the east side of the Peavy Forest Science Center).
On the left side of the main landing page of the Arboretum Web Map, visitors will find instructions for using various features of the map, and definitions of terminology and acronyms used. Drop-downs on the right side of the map can be used to identify individual trees by Common Name (e.g. American Elm, Bur Oak, Red Maple), Genus (e.g. Carpinus, Styrax), and Common Family Name (e.g. Beech family, Birch family). The scroll wheel can be used to Zoom in and out, and clicking on any individual orange pin will open a window with more information about that individual tree (e.g. height, diameter, and date of last measurement).
The Atlas of Drowned Towns is a “public history project that explores the histories of the communities that were displaced or disappeared to make way for the reservoirs for…‘river development projects’ — aka large dams.”
From the interactive map (linked at the top of the landing page), users can click on the compass icon on the left to apply filters and overlaps to the map (e.g. aerial photographs and historical maps), view “artifacts” associated with each community (e.g. photographs, documents, oral histories), and read historical research about displaced communities. Clicking on the lightbulb icon on the right side of the interactive map shows aggregated data for the number of displaced communities, the people displaced, and total cost of displacement. Alternatively, users can view a list of all displaced communities documented as part of the project from the Directory page.
Please note that this project is still in development, and most content and functionality are currently focused on Detroit, Oregon.
The University of Richmond’s Mapping Inequality Project, an “open access project [focusing] on red-lining, the practice of denying financial services to residents based on race or ethnicity,” includes maps of a wide variety of U.S. urban centers. While the heaviest concentration of maps are of East Coast and Midwestern cities (e.g. Chicago, Detroit, Philadelphia, and Boston) cities in Oregon and Washington are also featured, including Seattle, Tacoma, Spokane, and Portland. From the map view, clicking the “Select City” box will show a list of all cities and counties featured on the map, arranged alphabetically by state.
For each map, information is included that documents how areas were categorized (e.g. Best, Still Desirable, Definitely Declining, and Hazardous), and populated (i.e. with regards to race). Clicking on any of the defined areas of individual city maps provides additional information on that area’s inhabitants and characteristics.
Please note: Some of the language used in the historical documents and maps on this site may be disturbing or activating. In several instances, map authors use racist, derogatory, and harmful language. Specifically, the use of slurs against Asian and Pacific Island people, and toward African Americans, is prevalent, as is anti-semitic language.
What began in California in 2005, has since become a nationwide effort to inventory, map, and interpret New Deal public works. This interactive website allows users to access photographs, site information, historic documents, and personal accounts, and New Deal site maps can be browsed by city, state, artist name (arranged by first name), agency (e.g. Bureau of Public Roads), and category (e.g. Art Works, Civic Facilities).
The interactive state map for Oregon alone includes historical information for over 300 New Deal sites. For each site, the following information is included as applicable and known: City, Site Type (e.g. Parks and Recreation, Dam), New Deal Agencies involved, when construction began and was completed, a brief description / historical narrative, and photographs (both present and historical). The Advanced Search feature – accessed by hovering over the word “Maps” in the blue banner at the top of each page – can be used to search across the nearly 19,000 sites documented to date.
Rachel Lilley (she/they) is the Public Services Unit Supervisor at the Oregon State University Special Collections and Archives Research Center (SCARC), and has worked as a reference archivist for over a decade (eight years of which has been at OSU). She holds an M.A. in History with a concurrent certificate in Archives and Records Management from Western Washington University.