How do I make a layered historical map online?
August 16, 2024 12:24 PM Subscribe
For a local history project in the U.K., I’m creating a digital map to show how the area grew over time.
I started adding the data and building it in Google Maps, but it isn’t quite what I need. I’m the default tech-savviest person working on this, so finding other ways to do this that aren’t too much of a stretch would be great.
What I’d like to do
Show — maybe on map layers? — the buildings by date, with details in hover-over notes or via a clickable pin.
e.g. St Spaghetti’s Church, built 1865. First priest Father Parmesan.
23 Letsbe Avenue. Constructed 1910. First residents Joe Schmoe and Jean Schmoe.
So the first decade would be one map layer with a couple of farms, and a church. Then the next would be another layer with more buildings around the station. And on and on as the area expanded.
Where I've got to
Right now in Google Maps I’ve got everything in one layer, with different colours for decades, but it looks really crowded and hard to understand. I've started moving things to separate layers now, but it's still not ideal.
I've looked at Felt and reckon I could figure that out, but it's pricey. Our volunteer group sees this as a project that will be viewable online forever, preferably free. So subscription models probably won’t work, although one-off payments might.
All of that said, this map will be static once the information is uploaded -- we just want to show the growth of the district in the beginning. So I could use Felt and then export it, right?
So maybe using a PowerPoint presentation or similar, one slide would have the first decade, the second slide overlays the second, and so on? That would be visually appealing, and we could embed that in our website or show at local history meetings.
Pointers to how-to guides or similar examples would be really helpful -- thank you!
What I’d like to do
Show — maybe on map layers? — the buildings by date, with details in hover-over notes or via a clickable pin.
e.g. St Spaghetti’s Church, built 1865. First priest Father Parmesan.
23 Letsbe Avenue. Constructed 1910. First residents Joe Schmoe and Jean Schmoe.
So the first decade would be one map layer with a couple of farms, and a church. Then the next would be another layer with more buildings around the station. And on and on as the area expanded.
Where I've got to
Right now in Google Maps I’ve got everything in one layer, with different colours for decades, but it looks really crowded and hard to understand. I've started moving things to separate layers now, but it's still not ideal.
I've looked at Felt and reckon I could figure that out, but it's pricey. Our volunteer group sees this as a project that will be viewable online forever, preferably free. So subscription models probably won’t work, although one-off payments might.
All of that said, this map will be static once the information is uploaded -- we just want to show the growth of the district in the beginning. So I could use Felt and then export it, right?
So maybe using a PowerPoint presentation or similar, one slide would have the first decade, the second slide overlays the second, and so on? That would be visually appealing, and we could embed that in our website or show at local history meetings.
Pointers to how-to guides or similar examples would be really helpful -- thank you!
Depending on how much code experience you have, leaflet is fairly easy.
posted by signal at 12:46 PM on August 16
posted by signal at 12:46 PM on August 16
A full-featured GIS would be ideal, but those are pricy and complex. Maybe check out Story Maps, which has a free tier.
posted by agentofselection at 2:37 PM on August 16 [3 favorites]
posted by agentofselection at 2:37 PM on August 16 [3 favorites]
+1 for Story Maps - I can access this for free via my institution - you might consider if any history lecturers in the UK might be keen to collaborate in some way - I imagine they may have similar free access.
posted by coffeecat at 5:14 PM on August 16
posted by coffeecat at 5:14 PM on August 16
This is the sort of thing that's not a big project if you know some Javascript and map programming. But if you don't, you want a tool to do it for you. There's a lot of options here, there's no standard one way to do things.
ESRI's Story Maps, linked above, is a great presentation and is the closest to the standard way. But it's expensive. If you can fit in a free tier it's worth a shot, otherwise expect $$ every year you want the map online.
StoryMapJS from Knight Labs is a free open source alternative. I think it's available both in a hosted form and something you code and host yourself. It is under active development (unlike most of the other open source map storytelling things.)
You might also want to give Felt a look, it's a very interesting map presentation tool. It's commercial and may not have the right pricing for you, but worth a look.
posted by Nelson at 5:56 PM on August 16
ESRI's Story Maps, linked above, is a great presentation and is the closest to the standard way. But it's expensive. If you can fit in a free tier it's worth a shot, otherwise expect $$ every year you want the map online.
StoryMapJS from Knight Labs is a free open source alternative. I think it's available both in a hosted form and something you code and host yourself. It is under active development (unlike most of the other open source map storytelling things.)
You might also want to give Felt a look, it's a very interesting map presentation tool. It's commercial and may not have the right pricing for you, but worth a look.
posted by Nelson at 5:56 PM on August 16
no matter what ui ya go for, the hardest thing will be generating the geodata. If you already have the data made in wkt, or shapefile, or a supported format, the rest is pretty simple.
posted by j_curiouser at 6:57 PM on August 16
posted by j_curiouser at 6:57 PM on August 16
QGIS free open source will do what you want and if you're mainly only layering info. the learn curve isn't too steep. And there's some great communities to ask Qs. Quite a few users on mefi too.
The UK hss a surprising amount of free data online, considering the Tories destroyed everything else. I can prob put some links up of that's useful.
posted by unearthed at 10:07 PM on August 16
The UK hss a surprising amount of free data online, considering the Tories destroyed everything else. I can prob put some links up of that's useful.
posted by unearthed at 10:07 PM on August 16
Try using Datawrapper, which is free and super easy to use. You can create 'locator maps' (and they have a ton of good documentation). From your description I could even imagine you making a bunch of maps, exporting them to png, and then animating them to show change.
posted by entropone at 5:18 AM on August 17
posted by entropone at 5:18 AM on August 17
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posted by HearHere at 12:35 PM on August 16