How can I plot multiple sea journeys onto a digital map? « Digital Humanities Questions & Answers

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How can I plot multiple sea journeys onto a digital map?

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Asked 8 years ago by TimC
Latest answer from TimC

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TimC
Member
Hello there,

As part of a proposed project I have in mind to create a digital map, showing multiple sea journeys - i.e. information upon the individuals involved in that journey, the dates it began and ended, the name of the ship, and to plot it route on the map. Most journeys begin in eastern Australia, but the destinations are global.

I've had a brief play around with Google Maps which might suit the purpose, but doesn't seem ideal for working with sea journeys or the amount of data I plan to input for each voyage.

Is anyone aware of any software which might be a better fit?

Thanks for your help, and apologies for my ignorance.

Tim
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Posted 8 years ago Permalink
KaCeBe
Member

If you seek for a web-based solution, the recently published "Map Scripting 101", "an Example-Driven Guide to Building Interactive Maps with Bing, Yahoo!, and Google Maps
by Adam DuVander (http://nostarch.com/mapscripting.htm) might be a starting point.
A desktop-solution would be using Google Earth or NASA World Wind.
KML would probably the "language" to use, as it is an open standard and can also serve as a datasource. Cf. example the work of the colleagues at Stanford http://www.stanford.edu/dept/humbio/googleMaps/Voyage_of_the_Beagle.kmz (Link should open in Google Earth)

Posted 8 years ago Permalink
Bill Ferster
Member

The folks over at the Hagley Museum (Dupont) used VisualEyes to track early 19th century sales of gunpowder:

http://www.hagley.org/library/exhibits/brandywine/nationalsales.html

and

http://www.hagley.org/library/exhibits/brandywine/saleslocal.html

I think they tracked over 8,000 individual sales from archive records.

Posted 8 years ago Permalink
Kelly Johnston
Member

Hi Tim,

Check the examples and tutorials at Google Lit Trips to see how others have used Google Earth to document travel, both on land and sea. You can embed as much information as you want on individuals involved in the journey, dates, ship info, and such in the KML so it's available interactively to your user when they click icons on the map. And it's easy to share your work with others through KML/KMZ files. If this looks appealing, download one of the .kml files from the site and use it as a model for your project.

And here's a fun read on how to document an ocean voyage, now in progress: Tahina Expedition

Kelly

Posted 8 years ago Permalink
ian.johnson
Member

We've been plotting sea voyages - specifically the Beagle - using Google Maps and Simile Timeline with data recorded in Heurist (heuristscholar.org). You can see an example at http://heuristscholar.org/cocoon/anmm/item/1225/ (log in with guest+guest). On the right you have the resources linked to that particular section, including previous and next sections, images and the voyage as a whole (which itself is linked back to all the sections in voyage order). The underlying database is a collaborative web-based object database built on MySQL/PHP.

The pages are built from Heurist records and relationships which generate XML which is processed with XSLT and Cocoon. This is rather an old experimental version of our Relationship Browser view - some of it is broken and the map/timeline layout is poor. This capability is now embedded directly in the Heurist front-end (Vsn 3, due out early next year).

For a more finished system which uses the same XML/XSLT/Cocoon relationship browser technology see http://www.dictionaryofsydney.org/place/hyde_park_barracks - the navigation, map, timeline, images etc. are generated in the same way from Heurist relationships.

Posted 8 years ago Permalink
TimC
Member

Dear all,

Thanks very much for your comments, which are extremely helpful in trying to better work out what I want to do - a copy of 'Map Scripting 101' is heading my way!

Thanks again, and all I need to do now is finish the proposal...

all the best,

Tim

Posted 8 years ago Permalink

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