A link to my map can be found here.
The process of geo-referencing maps was not as hard as I initially thought it would be, although I did find the website to be somewhat buggy. I decided to choose one of the maps that was randomly generated for me, however I did refresh the map a few times until I found one that looked interesting. The title of my map is “Atmosfernye fronty. Fevral’. Avqust” and it seems to be an atlas of the oceans from 1976.
Some things I noticed throughout this process was that when geo-referencing maps, occasionally the land borders don’t line up exactly with the modern map, making the process more difficult. Similarly, a lot of landmarks on the older map are out of place or outright missing, which can cause confusion when trying to align it with updated versions. An additional difficulty that I encountered in my map specifically was that a lot of the labels were in an alternate language, so I had to either translate the words or interpret them to the best of my ability. Ultimately, I feel like this process increased my appreciation for the complexities of historical geography and how mapping is an ever-changing process. I think my understanding of spatial DH projects also shifted, as previously I thought of these projects primarily as a tool for visualization. However, now I can appreciate that they can be beneficial for analyzing historical changes and understanding how geographic perceptions can evolve over time.
For digital humanities research, geo-referencing maps offer a wide range of opportunities. You can explore different ways in which our society has changed over time, such as seeing how urban areas have developed. You can also see how environmental factors may have impacted the land, such as through receding shorelines. However, it’s also important to address that all maps are not accurate, which could easily lead to false conclusions.
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Because of my own background and thoughts I emphasize a lot with your points about how geo-referencing allows us to better understand history, however I had not thought of how the inaccuracy of the maps might lead us to make conclusions, but it makes sense, say in a map there is a village in xyz coordinate and in our modern maps that village is 100 miles inland, we might make the conclusion that the village simply moved, but instead is that the cartographer was not paying as much attention to that area.