Digital mapping tools can be used with any documents that include descriptions or pictures of place or location anywhere on earth. Digital mapping tools can provide users with visualizations of location and place in order to connect the past with the present, and to show if a particular place has changed over time, or stayed the same. We can also ask about how a particular geographic place has influenced people. When digital mapping tools show a cluster of data within a certain geographic range, we can ask why that particular area was affected.
The National Mall project is a good example of showing how the space has been transformed through the centuries by use of historic maps and textual descriptions. They can also show a visualization of the distance between places, and cluster areas regarding a set of information. Mapping the Gay Guild provides geographic information about where there were safe spaces and communities for gay men and women across the South from 1965 to 1980.
Digital mapping tools allow users to see visual presentations of textual content. For example, more than 2,000 interviews of former enslaved people took place between 1936 and 1938 under the Works Progress Administration and the Federal Writers Project. The Slave Narrative Collection, housed at the United States Library of Congress, has a massive amount of data, which makes it difficult to study. Visualizations of text applications are therefore useful to enhance and enable research and study. By using digital mapping techniques, such as Kepler.gl, developed by the transportation company Uber, users can visually see the vast amounts of data entered from the Slave Narratives, such as where clusters of interviews took place and distances between interviews. By applying filters to the maps of the Slave Narratives, users can also create a timeline of when the interviews occurred, and compare two maps side by side.
Digital mapping tools can broaden research and learning about places by providing visualizations and stories based on geographic features. By working specifically with Kepler.gl, my thoughts about working with digital mapping tools did not change, because I already had an understanding of how helpful digital mapping tools can be for those conducting research on large quantities of data.