How to Read this "Paper"

This paper is an attempt to demonstrate the utility of mapping as a method of historical analysis; it is also an attempt to construct a hybrid essay composed of textual and graphic elements. Because the graphic elements are almost exclusively maps, I want to say a few words about the general characteristics of the maps I have generated, and how you might want to go about reading them.

We all know, but often forget, that maps do more than simply articulate knowledge: they also create it. Therefore, to read a map well we must read it critically. In order words, we have to resist the beguiling idea embedded deep within our cerebral cortext that by virtue of being human we know how to read maps. This is particularly important in an age in which many believe that the maps produced by Google and NASA are by definition more accurate than the depictions of the surface of the Earth made centuries ago by "analog" cartographers.

In reality of course, maps made today are no less constructed - and thus dependent on any number of fields of knowledge, ideological vocabularies, and cultural values - than those wrought of parchment and inkwash. Any map - any map worth its salt, that is - is a highly complex device with its own embedded assumptions and biases. It has its own code; its own way of manipulating and visualizing the relationship between representation and represented.

You will find a healthy dose of consistency in the basic design of the map series presented here. For example, I have held the scale, projection, and basemap more or less steady. Here are a few notes you may find useful as you work through the maps:

• This project uses an historical basemap rather than a view of European Russia sampled from Google, National Geographic, or Open Street Map (all standard basemaps provided by ESRI). The basemap in almost all cases consists of the mosaic image of the Geographical Atlas (1821-2817, see Sources). The raster file is overlaid with a vector layer containing the administrative boundaries (provincial level) of the empire set to 50% transparency to enhance legibility of the core data layers.
• Projection: Equidistant Conic with central meridian set to 37.5.
• Wherever it made sense I used a manual classification scheme with 4 or 5 classes set to equal interval values based on 100% or 50%.

Finally, while in many cases I have paired maps with annotations that attempt to direct your attention to one or more significant elements of the visualization, these annotations are closer to thumbnail sketches than thick descriptions. You will no doubt see things in the data that escaped my gaze or be willing to suggest ways to better contextualize and narrate the complexities of economic exchange. I hope it goes without saying that I look forward to harvesting those ideas and insights.

How to View the Maps

When you first arrive on a page the map images will be quite small and difficult to read. When you click on a map you will go to "Item" view. Here you will find as much metadata as I've managed to upload at the moment. Within "Item" view you can click on the image yet again: this will bring you, at long last, to a view of the map you can inspect in detail.

How to Annotate the Maps

Unfortunately, this isn't the strong suit of Omeka, the exhibit builder used to build the site. If you use Diigo, the social bookmarking/annotation tool, please feel free to mark up the pages of the site with comments and sticky notes. So long as you set your notes to publically viewable, I will be able to see them and respond.