Why do maps fascinate us so much? Perhaps because they give us a new way of looking at our world. Maybe because they allow us to experience the thrill of travels and new discoveries. If we study old maps, we see a world of the past, where the forces of history have changed borders, enabled new methods of transportation, built towns and cities, and abandoned others to dust. Like no other medium, maps allow us to view our world as it was, as it is now, and as it may be in the future.
With two new map resources now available to people both inside the McPherson Public Library as well as online from home, this is definitely map month at the library!
The first resource is our McPherson County atlases. The 1884 and 1903 atlases are now online, and the 1921 atlas will be loaded within weeks. When I look at the images of the 1884 atlas I see more than section lines and roads -- I see a snapshot of life here during that time.
The cartographer has included the location of farm houses and barns, of groves of trees, of springs, ponds, streams, and creeks. He even has sketched tiny windmills wherever one was located. I look closer and I see where he occasionally made specific notations, writing, for example, “syrup manuf.” on the property of James Lawson southwest of Roxbury.
It was a time of decentralization and rural community life, with schools, churches, post offices, and cemeteries scattered throughout the 25 townships that comprised McPherson County. And looking at the last names of the landowners, it is not difficult to see the ethnic heritage of the people who settled various portions of the county in those early years.
The second resource takes us from McPherson to the world. AtoZMapsOnline is a database which contains over 146,000 maps! They may be as simple as outline maps of states and countries or as complicated as detailed scientific maps.
Some of the maps are truly remarkable, as is the case with an animated NASA map of the globe which shows the water surface temperatures of the oceans changing over time. With the recent earthquakes in Haiti, I can consult seismicity maps of the world and see that the country sets atop a very active seismic region. I also can view such maps for each of the 50 states and determine that earthquakes are quite rare in Kansas!
History enthusiasts and genealogists will enjoy the 10,000 antique maps in AtoZMapsOnline, which range from a map of Germany in the early 1600s to one of the earliest maps of the Colorado gold fields.
To explore both of these tremendous map resources, visit the library or visit our web site at www.macpl.org. For the atlases, select the Local History & Genealogy option from the menu. For AtoZMapsOnline select the Search Databases option. The world is at your feet.
McPherson, Kan. —
