presentation for NYS GeoCon 2023 on OpenHistoricalMap and examples of Historical Mapping in New York State
The first email address on the final slide is wrong. rwelty@averillpark.net is the correct email.
2. Background
• OpenHistoricalMap is an OpenStreetMap side
project
• more than 10 years old
• Uses same Data Schema and APIs as
OpenStreetMap
• Has its own time-sensitive rendering engine
3. Background
• Currently organized as a Charter Project of
OpenStreetMap US
• Fundraising through OSM US (a 501(c)3)
• Open Data
• Current License philosophy is mixed
• We encourage uploads with CC0 (public domain
equivalent)
• ODbL for overall database is probably inevitable
4. Background
• Still a lot of experimentation going on
• How to represent change in the OSM schema
• How to represent imprecision and
incomplete knowledge
5. Lower Manhattan
• Well known that there is a lot of
fi
ll
• But how much
fi
ll?
• Project: map evolving coastline
8. Time
• We would like to think we can document
speci
fi
c dates and times
• But we often can’t
• Our data is frequently point-in-time
• That is, a map or aerial image shows when
something exists (or doesn’t exist)
• Old documents may be missing
9. Time
• OpenStreetMap is not very concerned with time
• pretty relentlessly about now
• has a start_date tag but not a lot else
10. Time
• OpenHistoricalMap is all about time
• Provision for both start and end dates for
entities
• OHM is adapting Extended Date Time Format
• EDTF is a standard derived from ISO 8601
• It can describe imprecision and uncertainty
11. Life Cycle
• Life Cycle goes hand in hand with time
• Highways and Roads
• change route
• are renamed
• change in importance
13. Semantic Network
• OpenStreetMap uses relations for grouping
• OpenHistoricalMap leans very heavily into
relations
• representing entities across life cycle
• abstract meta data from geometry
• facilitate cross linking to the wikimedia
complex (wikipedia, wikidata, etc.)
14. Harmony Mill
• Textile Mill in Cohoes NY, built during the
Industrial Revolution
• Repurposed more than once during its
existence
• https://www.openhistoricalmap.org/
#map=17/42.78093/-73.70414&layers=O&da
te=1930-12-17&daterange=1923-01-01,202
3-12-31
15. Boutique Mapping vs
Mapping at Scale
• Most mappers are engaged in small scale,
focused projects
• OHM is open to well considered, well vetted
bulk imports
• but data quality is critical
• OHM will be sparse without imports
16. Potential Imports
• Historical Boundaries
• from European Settlement
• Native peoples
• Sanborn Fire Insurance Maps
• Historical coastlines and water features
• Sourcing and Licensing?
22. Ghost Tracks
• Historic Motor Racing venues, now gone
• New York has many, many Ghost Tracks
• Vanderbilt Cup Races
• early Watkins Glen
• Bridgehampton
• huge numbers of small dirt oval tracks
23. Vanderbilt Cup Races
• Originated on Long Island in 1904
• Initially used public roads (1904-1906)
• Safety when racing on public roads has
“issues”
• http://www.na-motorsports.com/test/VC.html
24. Long Island Motor
Parkway
• William K. Vanderbilt Jr’s half a solution to the
public road problem with racing
• Important step in the evolution of highways
• All concrete, grade separated toll road
• Parts are extant today
• 1906-7 Vanderbilt Cup races used it for one
leg of the race
27. Watkins Glen
• 1948: Automotive road racing returns to the
US after WWII
• Lessons about racing safety on public roads
evidently forgotten
• After the 1952 accident killed and injured
spectators there would be new courses with
improved safety
• www.na-motorsports.com/test/Watkins.html
39. Seneca Village
• Early mid 1800s in Manhattan
• Located near the Reservoir and Great Lawn today
• majority Black, with a lot of Irish
• escaping from 5 points neighborhood
• Taken as part of the e
ff
ort to build Central Park
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seneca_Village
41. Rapp Road
• Settled in Albany during the 1920s
• A community of Blacks moved north from rural
Mississippi, following their Pastor
• Lived in Albany's South End, but eventually
moved west to the Albany Pine Bush
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/
Rapp_Road_Community_Historic_District
44. Contact
• These slides
• https://www.slideshare.net/nfgusedautoparts/
• nfgusedautopartsrwelty@averillpark.net or
nfgusedautoparts@gmail.com
• in the OpenStreetMap US Slack channel
• https://openstreetmap.us/get-involved/slack
• #openhistoricalmap
