Historical Image of the Day

This week's images revolve around the history of Los Angeles, as I prepare for my U.S. Urban History course this spring.

Map of Los Angeles, 1917

Historical Image of the Day

This week's images will focus on the decade of the 1800s. Oddly, in all the years I've done these images, I've never had a single image from that decade. There are some obvious reasons for this--images in the photography age are much easier to come by. Also, I don't study the period and it's not a decade I think much about. However, since these images are really about a bank of cool images for teaching, I want to be more complete. How many more New Deal images can I show? A lot really of course. But anyway, the 1800s!

This week's images are inspired by Diane Wenger's A Country Storekeeper in Pennsylvania: Creating Economic Networks in Early America, 1790-1807, published by Penn St. in 2008. It was recommended as a possible book to teach for the first half of the U.S. history survey. Wenger has a good story, following a single shopkeeper during the transition to capitalism. However, there's no way to teach it. I don't know whether to blame the author or the press. Probably the latter. It's a huge problem with the academic publishing market. This story should have been written in a more popular and accessible manner--there's a lot to work with here. But that doesn't get you tenure unfortunately. There's also dissertation-level historiography in the text, which the press should have eliminated. Good book in many ways, but not for undergraduates.

Map of North America, 1806

Historical Image of the Day

Map of New York City, 1764

Historical Image of the Day

This week's theme is the Atlantic Ocean in early America. Since I use these images to create a bank for teaching materials, I've been trying to add more pre-1865 themes in recent weeks, which will probably continue for awhile. It's easier to find images in the postwar period and laziness is always tempting, but I'll do this for awhile.

Map from William Bolan's 1764 book The Ancient Right of the English Nation to the American Fishery.

A more interesting map of the 2008 Presidential Results

 Here is a rescaled map of the U.S. based on population proportions. You can find more maps that better represent the results here, as well as an explanation on how this was made.

Historical Image of the Day

French colonial map of St. Louis, circa 1800

Historical Image of the Day

Map of New Orleans, 1849

Historical Image of the Day

Map of Natchez, Mississippi, 1891

Historical Image of the Day

Map of New Hampshire and Vermont, 1796

Historical Image of the Day

"Rio Colorado of the West"

1858 map