Sanborn Maps

I discovered early on in my teaching career that I couldn’t get my point across to students without a map.   I had pull-down maps in my classroom, but I rarely used them because they were mounted over my white boards, and they would cover up other information students needed access to   The mounted maps rarely had the information I needed to show students at the time as well, so I would just draw a quick outline of the United States on the board, fill the map in with whatever I was teaching at the time, and then move on.

Recently, I ran across a map source I was unaware of – a resource used by historical researchers, city planners, preservationist, genealogists, and even sociologists.

I’m speaking of Sanborn Maps – maps that were created from 1867 to 1970 detailing town and building information for approximately 12,000 towns and cities in the United States.

The Sanborn Company was founded by Daniel A. Sanborn in 1867.  The original purpose of the maps was for fire insurance assessment.  Eventually, the Sanborn Company was the largest and most successful American map company with several regional offices including my favorite town….Atlanta, Georgia.

In much the same way as Google has sent out a legion of folks to gather data for Google Earth, the Sanborn Company used surveyors to visit each town where they detailed every street and building periodically.   Not only would the maps indicate where the buildings were they also indicated the types of businesses that were in each location.

Those involved with history research use the maps to look at how certain areas grew and later declined.   I’ve used the maps to determine how certain historic buildings in the town I live in have changed over time and confirm ownership since the early deed records burned in during a courthouse fire during the 1950s. 

You can see one of my weekly columns here where I used Sanborn data in my research.  I’m able to research particular lots and can determine at what year the locations go from vacant lots to structures.   I can tell if the structure was wood or at what point the owner upgraded to brick or added an awning.   The name of the owner is usually listed as well as the types of businesses that could be found from year to year.

Genealogist can use Sanborn maps to confirm ownership of homes and buildings since structures are very detailed while city planners use the maps to study urban designs over time.   The maps also come in handy for historic preservationist and demographers.

….and what about the classroom….would I use them there?

You bet I would.

Tom Gates, Associate Professor at Kent State has an excellent online article regarding Sanborn Maps here which includes a section on use in the classroom.   Gates advises:

The Sanborn digital maps can be used for individual research and classroom instruction.  The changes in a town and the built environment are recorded in detail and can provide the basis for a number of projects, which can be visually presented in the classroom.

The study of American literature, based on novels and travel journals which describe typical Nineteenth Century American towns, can be better understood by studying maps and their Record Descriptions which contain references to places in terms that are now arcane in American English usage.

Architectural design students can use the Sanborn Maps to analyze various building types and functions exemplified by cathedrals, synagogues, theaters, hotels, residences, schools, laundries, bathhouse, department stores, factories, fire houses, etc.

I highly advise educators to read the entire article and decide for yourself how you could use these resources in your classroom.

You can find Sanborn maps at the following links….there are probably more, but this will get you started!  Enjoy!!!

Library of Congress

North Carolina, 1884-1922

Missouri, 1883-1951

Florida, 1860-1923

Utah, 1884-1922

South Carolina, 1884-1960

Alabama, 1884-1950

Hallowell, Maine, 1890

Frankfort, Kentucky, 1907

Indianapolis, Indiana, 1887-1941

Georgia, 1884-1922

Toledo, Ohio, 1902 –

Cincinnati, Ohio

Muncie, Indiana, 1883-1911

St. Louis, Missouri, 1870-1904

San Francisco, 1900

Milwaukee, 1894 and 1910

Colorado, 1883-1922

Odds and Ends From My InBox

I have several things I want to share this morning, so……….hang on.

First is The Journal of the Gilded Age and Progressive Era…….it’s published quarterly and the website advises each issue is packed with original essays, including on-line projects and reviews of scholarly books. The focus, of course, is all aspects of U.S. History from 1865-1920. I have a few articles here at History Is Elementary regarding the Gilded Age. You can access all of them here…..Just scroll through to find them all. 

Then there’s the website, Mission U.S. This is a site for for older elementary and middle school students and provides an innovative way for sharing social studies content. The first game, “For Crown or Colony?” has already launched. The setting for the game is Boston in 1770 and students actually role-play taking on the identity of a publisher’s apprentice. Students will interact with such real figures in history as Phillis Wheatley and Paul Revere. I've included an image from the game below.....

The development team for Mission U.S. includes historians from the American Social History Project and Center for Children and Technology. The game developers on the project are from Electric Funstuff.

…..and then there’s PhillyHistory.org……a geographic photo search website.   There are over 87,000 images and maps from five Philadelphia organizations you can search, research, share with friends or purchase.   Some of the images you can view include the one below of Civil War soldiers camping outside of Independence Hall.  It can be accessed here at the website.

History Is Elementary has been included in a Top 50 List for blogs with teaching tips, ideas and inspiration over at Masters in Teaching…..you can find the list here.

The Gift

Back during another lifetime in the 1970s you would have found me on Friday night sitting in front of our family television….the one where the knob had fallen off and we had to resort to using needle-nosed pliers to change it…patiently waiting for my favorite television show to air. There I was – gazing up at the screen – watching a parade of commercials and happily munching on taco-flavored Doritos – then I would hear the theme song I can sing to this day and even if you won’t admit it, you can as well.

Here’s the story…of a lovely lady…who was bringing up three very lovely girls…All of them had hair of gold like their mother’s…the youngest one in curls.

Here’s the story…of a man named Brady…who was busy with three boys of his own…They were four men…living all together…yes, they were all alone.

I loved the Brady Bunch. They were different. They were not a cookie-cutter version of my very average family. Not everyone was related by blood, not everyone got along all the time, but there was a lot of love and acceptance. Take two families with former tragedy and throw in a dash of Alice and presto! An Instant American family I would have loved to be a part of.

Look around your classroom or neighborhood. We have more families with steps and halves and live-ins than ever before, and if you are like me you have often side-stepped an important facet of American History….our family history.

It’s easy to ignore these days, isn’t it?

We have students who have their fair share of tragedy….parents on drugs, in jail, molestations, mental illness, a different uncle in the house every week or so, physical violence…a plethora of mixed families that make the Brady Bunch-type family impossible to achieve, so I can understand why educators might be leery of asking children to examine their families, to answer the question why their families are important, and to decide how their family fits into the American quilt even with all the baggage that sometimes accompanies family life these days.

But, how can we ask students to connect to a bunch of folks discussed in the study of history that they’ve never heard of and will never meet unless they can connect to how they fit in….how their family fits into our society no matter the baggage and no matter the circumstances?

A brand new book has dropped into my lap that I think would serve as a great reminder that families come in all shapes and forms. A family doesn’t necessary have to be a group of people all related by biology….they have to have things in common and those things bind us together in love.

The book I’m talking about is called The Gift. Its author and illustrator, Karen Craft, just happens to be my dear sister. In The Gift she tells the true story of Baby Boy who came to live with a family who wanted a little boy very much. The book covers numerous themes from family love, overcoming tragedy, and even an honest look at what makes the concept of family what it is and to be more precise what makes the concept of a mother….a mother.

As the first page of the book states, “A Mama isn’t just someone that gives birth to you. She’s someone that sits with you when you’re sick, and doesn’t mind. She’s the one who bakes you cookies late into the night, when you forgot to tell her earlier. She will clap louder than anyone at your piano recital. She reads your favorite book to you over and over. And over. She really listens to you when you need to talk and when you’re scared she makes you feel safe. She teaches you to be polite and chew with your mouth closed. She’s the last person you see when she kisses you good night, and the first person you want to see in the morning. You know in your heart that she’s your Mother, you Mom, your Mama. She’s your gift and you are hers. Sometimes biology just isn’t so important after all.”

The Gift is a great book to open the door to discuss adoption with students of all ages, to discuss blended families, to discuss losing a family member, and to discuss how non-family members….our friends and neighbors….are important parts of our families as well.

Children will love the story details regarding Da, Mama, Sister Dear, and Baby Girl. The story even has its own version of Alice in the guise of Nanni-K who in reality happens to be my dear niece.

It is a great resource for your classroom library, a media center, or a home library. Students, young and old, will love The Gift as a read aloud as they make Mother’s Day cards and presents, and the book lends itself well to small group reading activities for older students.

Karen Craft’s illustrations are brought to life even in more exact detail by artist Meghan Branscomb from Mornin’ Glory Studios. As you can see from the story illustrations I’ve scattered through this post they are exceptional and make the story even more entertaining. I’m already thinking about making a few slides of the illustrations in enlarged detail to show to students as the book is read.

It’s a great book to purchase for your child or another child you know. With Mother’s Day around the corner it is also a perfect gift for your mother, mothers you know young and old, and even those motherly-types you have in your life. I have a few of those….and I know you do too.

Visit Karen Craft's website, Just Sharing a Story , to purchase your copy of The Gift.

A Couple of Links to Share

When I begin to teach my unit on the Age of Exploration I’m moving students from a purely North American focus (Native American tribes prior to 1500 A.D.) to one that includes Europe and Africa. Some of my posts regarding exploration can be seen here.

We spend a few days in the beginning discussing the status of the world at the time and going back a bit in time to discuss the rise of African kingdoms and their role in trade networks. One of the kingdoms we discuss is the Kingdom of Aksum as discussed here. Invariably a question regarding the Queen of Sheba will come up. I provide some links regarding her factual or mythical existence (you get to choose) over at Got Bible.

I have a rather large collection of blogs authored by fellow Georgians over at Georgia on My Mind. They cover a wide range of topics from history and religion to local or national politics. There are craft blogs, photo blogs, and even a few “here’s what I did today” blogs. Recently I discovered one that I want to share here with you. It’s a wonderful source for lovers of history.

The name of the blog is Mary Zelda. The description on the blog states it is a story of a rural southern family as recollected by a child who wasn’t even born for the first 37 years and related in the voice of Mary, who was there. The blog also describes itself as a fictive account from the first half of the 20th century illustrated by actual photos….and I love this part….characters and events in this story are real. Conversations are remembered or imagined.

Quite simply Mary Zelda is a wonderful and creative way to catalog and remember family history. I’m most impressed and see all sorts of ways it could be used in a classroom covering the early 20th century. Please go check her out!

If you have come by expecting my wordless image to be up I’m going to try really hard to be a good girl in ‘08 and not post it until after midnight on Tuesdays or wait until Wednesday morning.

Problem: History Students Who Are Not Proficient in English

Every year I have more and more students who appear at my door throughout the year who cannot speak a word of English or students who have problems reading English. Though they are placed with our ESOL teacher for assistance with learning English it is still up to me to find someway for my new charges to understand American History.

It’s not easy.

I could have just added this new resource to the blogrolls and let you find it on your own, but I think it’s worth a mention.

Larry Ferlazzo has put together an excellent resource for teachers in the areas of English language learning in the disciplines of Social Studies and Language Arts.

He has thousands of links specifically accessible to English Language Learners and to younger native speakers.

Check out his Geography and U.S. History page that has links to textbook audio among many other things. I’m most excited about that! It’s a fantastic resource for your classroom, and it really doesn’t matter if you don’t use the Worldview or American Story textbook. Just think of the possibilities!

Make sure you check out Larry’s World History page and his samples of student work as well. He’s used many of the hundreds of tools at his site for students to create social studies projects, some of which you can see.

…and please, don’t forget his great blog as well.

I’m linked, are you?

I've Been 'Splorin Again!

I have this habit of letting my Southernese get out of hand every now and then and it overflows into the classroom where I will shorten words and change them in order to relax things and have a little fun with the kids.

Once we embark on our unit of exploration I begin to refer to the large group of men my students must sort through and know as ‘splorers instead of explorers, and later in the year we ‘splore the American Revolution and the War of 1812, and so on. The kids enjoy correcting me when I use the wrong words.

At any rate….I’ve been ‘splorin through the maze we call the Internet and have found some more interesting resources. I’ll be adding these to the resource blogroll I have sometime today.

I’m really excited about sharing the Gilder Lehrman Institute of History site. It is a place I could spend hours at. At the site you can find history in the news, content, lesson ideas, and over 60,000 primary sources detailing the political and social history of the United States and North America from 1493 to modern times. Today’s featured document is the view of one Northerner regarding slavery in the South. There are also podcasts of various published historians speaking about their books, and you can comment!

AIM Your Projects With Flash….AIM being animation, interaction, and multimedia. This site provides numerous links to various flash media sites around the web. Keep scrolling for various Social Studies examples. There are also links for information if you want to try you hand at a flash project.

National Atlas….I can’t wait to play here. This site allows you to add all types of layers to the maps being viewed as well as including maps to download and print for classroom use. There’s a blue box that appears on the mainpage that tells you everything the site can help educators and “fun-seekers” with.

Go ‘splore…er, explore….you’ll never know what you will find.

559 Front Pages From 52 Countries!

My neighbor down the road, Ralph Luker, from Cliopatria (he picked up on this from Talking Points Memo) has given us a wonderful resource tip with a link to Newseum.

While the website has lots of interesting things to explore I'm most excited about their newspaper front pages.

I’m already thinking about how I can use this fascinating resource. It would be interesting to use different front pages to show how stories are reported from region to region, from country to country, and from paper to paper.

This would also be a great resource for current events assignments.

A Mixed Post: Presidential Tag Clouds, Ease History, and Bad History

This is SO WAY COOL! I’m so excited about it in a geeky kind of way. Dave over at Patahistory has linked to something called presidential speech tag clouds. You can link directly to his post here and read about it. You can link the tag clouds directly by clicking here. Once you are at the tag cloud site notice the button directly under George Bush’s name. Click on it and you will find it can move back to the left. As it travels left notice the tag clouds….they zoom back in time through all of the presidents.

This has many possibilities for research and classroom use. Have students compare and contrast tag clouds. When is terrorism first mentioned? Which president mentions war? Is there a president who doesn’t discuss the economy? Another possible activity could be to have students compare the tag clouds to actual events during a particular president’s administration.

Feel free to comment and post any additional ideas you can think of.

Ease History is a great find. Just where have I been? The website states Ease History is a rich online environment that supports the teaching and learning of history. It contains video clips regarding historical events and core values. It also includes campaign ads from 1952 through 2004. Go and explore to see how you can use this in the classroom!

The Carnival of Bad History is up over at Philobiblon. Not sure what bad history is?

Now is great time to find out.