Month: June 2014

Delaware Bird’s Eye Views Available on the Web

A portion of the Milford, DE Map of 1885 published by O.H. Bailey & Co. Source: The Norman B. Leventhal Map Center at the Boston Public Library
A portion of the Milford, DE Map of 1885 published by O.H. Bailey & Co. Source: The Norman B. Leventhal Map Center at the Boston Public Library

Bird’s-Eye-Views, a popular cartographic form during the late 19th and early 20th centuries, were painstakingly drawn by sketch artists.  Although they were not drawn precisely to scale, they provided helpful snapshots of towns frozen in time.  Showing busy communities, the artistic renderings revealed streets filled with carriages, stores surrounded by activities, and trains approaching stations.  They also depicted major perspectives on the landscape, and offered several detailed vignettes of certain buildings, which had been included on the view.  Of course, the subscriber paid a fee to have his building included in the inset.

The Boston Public Library’s Norman B. Leventhal Map Center has a collection of these artistic Delaware works available on the Internet.  An 1885 cluster contains O. H. Bailey & Co. products for Clayton, Smyrna, Georgetown, Harrington, Middletown, Milford, and Dover.  In 1874, H. H. Bailey & Company sketched out Wilmington.

The Norman B. Leventhal Center at the Boston Public Library is dedicated to the creative educational use of its cartographic holdings, which extend from the 15th century to the present.  In pursuit of its mission, the Center collects and preserves maps and atlases, promotes research in the collection, and makes its resources available to the public through its website, exhibitions, publications, lectures, and other programs.

Be sure to check out this collection the time you need maps from these communities and also search for other Delaware items in the library.  Here is the link to the search engine.

 

The 1885 Bird's Eye View of Clayton, DE., published by O H. Bailey & Co. Source: The Norman B. Leventhal Map Center at the Boston Public Library
The 1885 Bird’s Eye View of Clayton, DE., published by O H. Bailey & Co. Source: The Norman B. Leventhal Map Center at the Boston Public Library

 

Delaware & Maryland Freedmen’s Bureau Field Office Records Now Available Online

A letter from Georgetown, DE, dated April 11, 1867, to Col. Rutherford of the Freedmen's Bureau
A letter from Georgetown, DE, dated April 11, 1867, to Col. Rutherford of the Freedmen’s Bureau

Juneteenth, dating back to June 19th, 1865, commemorates the end of slavery in the United States and many communities across the nation hold special celebrations.  In observance of this day, FamilySearch has announced the release of additional online Freedmen’s Bureau Records.  The new additions are currently viewable as digital images but the data will become searchable as volunteers create an index.

The Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands (often called the Freedmen’s Bureau) was created in 1865 at the end of the American Civil War to supervise relief efforts including education, health care, food and clothing, refugee camps, legalization of marriages, employment, labor contracts, and securing back pay, bounty payments and pensions. These records include letters and endorsements sent and received, account books, applications for rations, applications for relief, court records, labor contracts, registers of bounty claimants, registers of complaints, registers of contracts, registers of disbursements, registers of freedmen issued rations, registers of patients, reports, rosters of officers and employees, special and general orders and circulars received, special orders and circulars issued, records relating to claims, court trials, property restoration, and homesteads.

Researchers examining this era or tracing family history back through time on the Delmarva Peninsula will find a lot of material to help them with their investigations.

I have only had a few minutes to examine this exciting primary source this morning, but here are the links to get you started.  The records have always been available, but a trip to the Archives was required to access them.  Be sure to read the full description of the records group, to get an idea of how to best approach this body of material.

Click here to view the records.

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Maryland and Delaware records.
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Wilmington, DE records for the Freedmen’s Bureau.

Revolutionary War Maps: The British Campaign of 1777 on the Upper Delmarva Peninsula

Progress of the army from their landing till taking possession of Philadelphia, 1777. Source: Library of Congress, http://www.loc.gov/item/gm71000678/#about-this-item
German map showing the invasion of the upper Delmarva Peninsula., 1777. Source: Norman B. Leventhal Map Center at Boston Public Library. Link: http://maps.bpl.org/id/11091

 

The Library of Congress, the Boston Public Library, and other virtual repositories have a series of detailed maps showing British operations on the upper Delmarva Peninsula, during the summer of 1777.  Several of these detailed products show the camps, movement, and engagements, as well as the general topographic nature of the region at that point.  Here are some samples.  You may want to check these out if this subject is of interest to you.  It is fascinating to be able to examine the details of the movements and the area, from multiple sources.

 

The campaign of 1777, Published London, C 1780., Source: Library of Congress. http://www.loc.gov/item/gm71000989/
The campaign of 1777, Published London, C 1780., Source: Library of Congress. http://www.loc.gov/item/gm71000989/

 

This map from the Library of Congress show operations of the britihs army from the 25th of August to the 26th of Sept, 1777. Source Library of Congress. http://www.loc.gov/item/gm71000921/
This map from the Library of Congress show operations of the british army from the 25th of August to the 26th of Sept, 1777. Source Library of Congress. http://www.loc.gov/item/gm71000921/

Historic Maps From All over the Delmarva Peninsula

Researchers have an almost unimaginable quantity of online resources to help with local and family history studies, these days.  And the historical materials grow rapidly with each passing year, creating treasure-troves of sources waiting to be harvested by inquiring types.

This information revolution makes volumes of virtual records easily findable, sharable, and accessible.  But this data explosion, which helps us better interpret the past, creates a new challenge, locating and managing the online resources.

Content curation tools help in this area.  They are generally cloud based personal information management systems, which have as a core function, organizing our higher quality resources.  You collect and add items into a cloud based library, which is available to anyone on the web.  Many of them function just like a bookmark, but it’s in the cloud, and some also provide additional resources, such as highlighting, notes, and better graphics.

I have set up a map curated resources page on a virtual site called liiist, to test one.   On this site, I have a page called Old Delmarva Maps.  As maps are one of those areas where we are seeing growth, there are now so many products available online, but unless you are regularly navigating the search engines and the key virtual archives, it can be hard to find the materials.  So I added links to maps from all over the Peninsula, which I use for research.  The idea is to help anyone working on a project find the better quality items.

I often find that I am helping genealogist, students, and local history researchers locate these materials on the Net so this is a way to more broadly share the e-collections.  On the site, you will find maps from all over the Delmarva Peninsula, from Claymont, DE and Bald Friar, MD. to Cape Charles, VA., and every point in between.  There are county and state atlases, Sanborn Fire Insurance Maps, large wall maps, coastal charts, topo maps, and lots more.

At this point, the titling convention I used for the bookmark headlines, in order to create some organization on the page for the first time visitor, was:  (1) MAPS — links directly to a cartographic products;  (2) Search – links to search engines and there are plenty of maps so be sure to search for anything that interests you; and (3) ARTICLES – posts about using maps.

I’m also looking at Pearltree, Diigo, and a few others, but want to test the social media tools to see which best help the local history and genealogy community.

Click here to go to Old Maps of Delmarva.

Links to high quality historic Delmarva maps.
Links to high quality historic Delmarva maps.