Welcome

Dave Rumsey Collection

Welcome to the Historical Cartographer Blog. 

This blog is about the historical cartography of the United States. My main focus will be the Midwest and Southwest regions, and mostly 19th century. Why the 19th century? Because that is when cartography reached it's zenith, as far as the cartographic arts are concerned. Starting in the 20th century technology and more modern techniques started to make cartography easily massed produced. The 19th century surveyors and cartographers were still using methods developed in the 18th century, right after the establishment of the Public Land Survey System (PLSS) or Rectangular System. Which I will go into more detail on as the blog matures. 

A little about me. 

I'm a Geographic Information Systems (GIS) professional, and have been in this field for only a couple of years. I graduated with a B.S. in Cartography from East Central University in Ada, Oklahoma, and at this moment I'm seriously contemplating going for my Masters in GIS. 

I have always been a big fan of maps. My grandparents were subscribers to National Geographic magazine, and every few months NG would include a large fold out map. So, whenever we visited them I would go straight to the draw where they put the maps and spend hours just exploring the world. 

This is the map that started my cartographic career. This image is of poor quality, I hope to find a higher resolution soon. I found it on the back of a door in a barber shop in Ardmore Oklahoma. After studying the map while waiting for my hair cut, I started noticing that I recognized many of the old roads, especially in the lower right hand section. I spent many hours in the woods in this part of the county and these roads are now trails, some swallowed up by the forest, others still used by farmers and ranchers. 

I asked for permission to remove the map from the door and quickly went to Staples and had copies made. I studied the map for hours and took it with into the woods to find these old roads. I contacted the United States Geological Survey, and soon had the eight quads that surrounded this one. Needless to say I was hooked, and soon discovered there was a new booming industry called GIS. I enrolled a few months later at ECU.

Since finding my passion for historical cartography I have given around six presentation and a few workshops at GIS conferences and other organizations, on its use with GIS, and I have a few more before this year is out (2014). So I hope to keep you updated on what's new with me.

So thanks for check out my blog, and I hope you enjoy it. Please feel free to drop me a line.

Dustin