Rachael Lanning: Spatial History

  I would like to sincerely apologize for my image quality, my laptop is not happy with me after this long day of classes and mapping. I decided to look into the redlining zones of Columbia as compared to the population density (on the Block level) from the 2010 census. In this map, each dot represents about 2 individuals in the area. Looking at this map, a pattern becomes clear, in the red and yellow areas of the redlining map, the highest population densities from 2010 can be found. Notice these are also close to the city center. This can possibly investigate a few questions. For instance, why/how did it progress that the lowest quality/most hazardous places to live have become the densest over time? Is the reason these places are hazardous because of the high density of residents? What impact does the University of South Carolina play in changing the values of the redlining areas since there are not any residents to count towards population density on the grounds of campus? I l...

My name is Rachael Lanning, and I am an anthropology major with a minor in history. I have an interest in museum work and public history/archaeology, I find the public interaction with history an incredibly important subject that deserves to be improved.  Engagement and digestion of history is something that needs constant attention and I am looking forward to applying the use of maps to aid understanding of history, especially locally.  I have been engaged in archaeological research pertaining to the Columbia area for about a year now, and I have been interacting with GIS in that research as well as during my archaeological field school this past summer. I am looking at archaeology on campus and at Sesquicentennial State Park, where I have used the ArcGIS StoryMap feature to tell the story of the histories of each location, as well as the archaeological site mapping process. I look forward to this course and learning more about GIS and public dissemination of historical infor...