UPCD 120L/ENVSTY 120L Boston: Social Justice and the City

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UPCD 120: Boston: Social Justice and the City

Name: UMB Email:

UPCD 120L/ENVSTY 120L

Boston: Social Justice and the City

Homework Assignment #1: Exploring Boston’s past through digital maps

For this assignment we will use the Boston Public Library’s Atlascope website (https://atlascope.leventhalmap.org ) to investigate Boston’s social justice history. The goal is to get you to look closely at a few specific sites in the city, collect some data based on your observations, and begin to think about what that information says about the history of the city and the maps themselves.

First familiarize yourself with the Atlascope website. Then look through the .pdfs for the People’s Guide to Greater Boston (links embedded in the assignment – note these are 250 mb files so do not download on your phone! If you cannot download them let me know.), which has descriptions about specific sites in and around the city. Choose three places that are described in the textbook and look them up on Atlascope. Compare the base map view of the location with at least one historical overlay. (Note that if the location falls outside of Boston proper, it may not be mapped, so you should choose sites that are on the map layers). You can input the address in the entry in the People’s Guide to the Atlascope’s search the location. After you research these three sites, choose one site of your own (this can be whatever you like – it does not have to be a place with a connection to social justice) for four total entries.

Record your observations about each place on the map by typing responses directly into the four location data sheets attached below. If your place is a building or monument you may include observations about the surrounding neighborhood. Include these location data sheets for each place in your submitted assignment.

After you complete the spatial analysis of your places, answer the following short-answer questions with a short paragraph for each answer (4-5 sentences; you are welcome to write more if you like!). Insert your answers at the end of this assignment.

1. Why did you choose the places you studied?

2. What stood out to you as unique or interesting about the historical uses of the places?

3. Which places had changed the most, and which had changed the least? Why do you think that is?

4. What sort of details are missing from these maps? What would you include if you were making the maps?

Submit this assignment as a .doc/.docx file or a .pdf file through Blackboard. Emailed submissions will not be accepted.

Things to look for:

Street names: What do you notice about how the streets are named? Are they the names of flowers? Or people’s last names? Or the names of kinds of businesses?

Transportation: Train or trolley tracks? Train or subway stations? Bus stops or stations? Piers or docks for boats? Major roads?

Density: How close together are things? Are the houses on small lots or large ones? How many blocks of housing are there in one area?

Names of property owners: Do they hint at an ethnicity? Are there a lot of the same names--one person owning a lot of property? Any names of women? 

Patterns: What patterns do you see in the way streets are arranged? In the shape of the lots? How buildings are placed? Are there neat rectangles or a lot of mixed up shapes? Any circles? Any other repeated elements that might tell us something about the area?

Types of buildings: Are there industries and businesses? What do they make or sell? Are there schools? How many? Are they spread out or mostly in one area? Are there places for worship: churches, synagogues, mosques? Are there government buildings or libraries? What other kinds of buildings do you see? 

Green space and water: Are there parks in your section? Big or small? Do their names tell you anything? Do you see any lakes or ponds, streams or rivers, the harbor and ocean? What do you notice about the water and the way people built things around it? 

Location: ______________________________________________

	Base Map:  _______________________________	Overlay:  _______________________________	Changes
Street Names
Transportation
Density
Property Owners
Patterns
Buildings
Green Space and Water

Location: ______________________________________________

	Base Map:  ______________________	Overlay:  ______________________	Changes
Street Names
Transportation
Density
Property Owners
Patterns
Buildings
Green Space and Water

Location: ______________________________________________

	Base Map:  ______________________	Overlay:  ______________________	Changes
Street Names
Transportation
Density
Property Owners
Patterns
Buildings
Green Space and Water

Location: ______________________________________________

	Base Map:  _______________________________	Overlay:  _______________________________	Changes
Street Names
Transportation
Density
Property Owners
Patterns
Buildings
Green Space and Water