Digital history offers up several
ways to analyze the research on the Mary Thompson House in Gettysburg, PA. First and foremost, the use of digital
mapping and geospatial analysis assists in forming a more complete story of the
Mary Thompson property. For example,
analyzing a geospatial map of the official auto tour of Gettysburg National
Military Park tells a story about the Mary Thompson property.
 |
| Official National Park Service (NPS) Auto Tour Guide and Map. Shown: Northwest corner of Gettysburg |
As charted above, the property is not an official part of the National Military Park. Since the battle (1863), this property has been under private ownership with no real effort made to preserve the property. Why? If you follow Seminary Avenue North, the route avoids the Thompson property. Evidence suggests this was purposely done for one of three reasons; all refer to the story of the property itself. Author Tim Smith cites the location’s early history as an identified brothel and the lack of enthusiasm for the National Park Service (NPS) to discuss this on a tour as one reason.[1] Secondly, the Railroad Cut to the North of the property was the site of the largest mass capture of Union troops during the battle’s first day of fighting.[2] The auto tour instead takes a route farther West of the property, where the 6th Wisconsin made a heroic charge and played the actor to one of the successes on the first day of the battle for the Union. Lastly, a debate, which will be a point of focus in future posts, on whether this property actually served as the true headquarters for Robert E. Lee during the three day battle. Together, these aspects led to a lack of effort to preserve this property until the Civil War Trust successfully purchased and preserved the land over the last two years.
Although digital records on this
place history are far and few between, digital histories provides unique
opportunities for historians to present and research the past in an engaging
way (i.e. using a map to tell a story about a property). Data analysis also assists with historical
research. Frederick Gibbs and Trevor
Owens, American historians, argue that using data through a variety of forms allow
for the provocation of “new question and explorations.”[3] Today, with an abundance of information and
research capabilities at our fingertips, data analysis make it easier to
combine different types of data to “triangulate historical knowledge” and
provide a more complete story of history to an audience.[4] Owens surmises that data play multiple roles
for the historian. According to Owens,
data are artifacts constructed by people, interpretable texts, process-able
information, and I would argue, most importantly, data hold evidentiary value.[5] A historian can use data sets pertaining to
business growth in an area or population growth in an area to contribute to
their topic of research. Again, a simple
layering of a Google Map can display a great deal of information.
 |
| Satellite Image of Gettysburg and Surrounding Area Courtesy: Google Earth |
As this map displays, all major roadways entering the town of Gettysburg touch a part of the preserved National Military Park, except for one. Lincoln Highway, Route 30 West, stretching to the Northeast does not touch the National Park. This map tells an interesting story that would support preservation attempts; business growth and commercialization is not evident on any of the major roadways, except Route 30 West.
Historical landscapes, as argued by John L. Gaddis, American
military and naval historian, are not similar to cartographic maps, as seen
above. The key reason to this contrast,
Gaddis points out, is that historical landscapes “are physically inaccessible
to us.”[6] This explains why data visualization assists
in telling a more complete story of history.
Gaddis surmised that “by discovering that what exists in the present has
not always done so in the past, that objects and organisms evolve through time
instead of remaining the same for all time,” researchers have the ability to
now use data processes to build historical landscapes.[7]
Specifically, data visualization assisted in the research of
the Mary Thompson House. Using United
States Census data, we can visualize a growth that we would be unable to see
using aerial cartographer, which did not exist in 1865. Also, data visualization represents data that
is visually inaccessible to us, particularly population.
 |
| Data Provided through United States Census Bureau |
The above chart is a data visualization of the overall population of Gettysburg Borough in Adams County, Pennsylvania. It spans from the year of Abraham Lincoln’s first election to the present, estimated population. The data sheds light on the story of the Mary Thompson House and specifically evidence to support its preservation. Population growth leads to more commercialization, in most cases. Although the population as leveled off since 1960, the growth of Gettysburg Borough threatens expansion onto Civil War land. Also, data visualizations promote questions that may not be obvious using other, text-based resources. For example, why was the population of Gettysburg Borough at its peak in 1960? Further research would defend the argument that the 100 year anniversary of the battle is somewhat responsible for this growth. As the anniversary neared, an effort to build hotels, restaurants, and other lodgings obviously brought jobs to the area. With jobs also came a population influx.
Spatial and data visualization analysis is useful to history
because they assist in a researching and presenting a more complete story of a
historical topic. With ongoing
digitization of primary sources, historians are able to attack historical
topics and engage with these resource materials at a rate not yet existing.[8] The result is a more detailed, more complete
story of historical topics as well as more engaging presentations of these
topics. Geospatial and data
visualization assist and contribute to the research and presentation of
historical topics. As surmised by Shawn
Graham, Ian Milligan, and Scott Weingart, the Digital Humanities “moment is
upon us.”[9] It is responsible for historians to implement
and seize the moment. The story of the Mary
Thompson House, Lee’s Gettysburg Headquarters, is more complete because of
Digital History.
In both research and presentation of research, mapping tells a story. Using aerial photography and Google Maps, the story of preserving the Mary Thompson Property is presented.
Thompson Property (Before Preservation)
Courtesy: Tim Smith, Garry Adelman, and The Civil War Trust
 |
Thompson Property (April, 2016)
Courtesy: Google Earth
Courtesy: Google Earth
 |
Digital Print of Completed Preservation (As of Saturday November 5th, Orchard missing) (Only a foundation exists on building to the Northeast)  |
[1] Tim
Smith, “Discussion on Mary Thompson House,” Saturday, November 5th,
2016.
[2] Smith’s
Book
[3] Frederick
W. Gibbs and Trevor J. Owens, “The Hermeneutics of Data and Historical Writing,”
in Jack Dougherty and Kristen Nawrotzki eds., Writing History in the Digital Age (2012).
[4]
Gibbs and Owens, “The Hermeneutics of Data and Historical Writing.”
[5]
Trevor J. Owens, “Defining Data for Humanists: Text, Artifact, Information or
Evidence?” (2011).
[6]
John Lewis Gaddis, The Landscape of History:
How Historians Map the Past” (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2002), 35.
[7] Gaddis,
Landscape of History, 39.
[8] Gibbs
and Owens, “The Hermeneutics of Data and Historical Writing.”
[9] Shawn
Graham, Ian Milligan, and Scott Weingart, The
Historians’ Macroscope: Big Digital
History, 2015.
Bibliography
Gaddis, John L. The Landscape of History: How Historians Map the Past.” Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2003.
Gibbs, Frederick and Owens, Trevor J. “The Hermeneutics of Data and Historical Writing.” in Jack Dougherty and Kristen Nawrotzki eds., Writing History in the Digital Age. 2012.
Graham, Shawn, Milligan, Ian, and Scott Weingart, The Historians’ Macroscope: Big Digital History, 2015.
Owens, Trevor J. “Defining Data for Humanists: Text, Artifact, Information or Evidence?” December, 2011.
Smith, Tim. “Discussion on Mary Thompson House.” Saturday, November 5th, 2016.
Smith, Tim. The Story of Lee’s Headquarters: Gettysburg Pennsylvania. Gettysburg: Thompson Publications, 1995.
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