3/26/2013 Artists in Museums on Google Maps

I am in a project tracking down Albert Bierstadt paintings (and Asher Durand, and Elijah Walton, and Frederic Church, and Jasper Cropsey, and J.M.W. Turner, and John Kensett, and Thomas Cole, and Thomas Hill, and Thomas Moran, and William Stanley Haseltine). This quest/project began because my wife and I will be visiting Yosemite National Park later this year. I took out Yosemite: art of an American icon from the library. It had a picture of Domes of the Yosemite, and credited it to St. Johnsbury Athenaeum in St. Johnsbury, VT. So we took a road trip up 93 a few weeks ago and saw this magnificent work of art (10 feet high by 15 feet wide) in person!




(click on the image to link to a BIG PICTURE!)

Which led me to Albert Bierstadt: Painter of the American West by Gordon Hendricks - a wonderful book with a section in the back listing the locations/collections of Bierstadt's paintings ("Check List of Paintings by Bierstadt"). As a GIS-guy/visual learner, I wanted to see these on Google Maps, so I made this:
click here for wheresbierstadt map

I list 133 Albert Bierstadt paintings in 90 locations - each map icon is on the exact location of the museum. The info window lists information regarding the significant pieces, hyperlinks to larger images and hyperlinks to each institution's web page.

The zoom is set to display all the museums in the database in the continental USA:

For this example, zoom-in on the High Museum of Art in Atlanta, GA, and click on the placemarker to get the info window:


The image hyperlinks to a large hi-res picture:


The picture title hyperlinks to the picture's information page:


The museum name hyperlinks to the museum's home page:


And, once you start zooming in


you will see that the placemarker is positioned at the museum's location:


One of our daughters is in New Haven, and I am very excited to see where the Bierstadt paintings are between the North Shore and New Haven!


If you enjoy this, please check out the maps I made for Thomas Moran, Thomas Hill, and William Stanley Haseltine!

And stay tuned for more artists maps!

DISCLAIMER: Since "collections rotate" and "paintings are loaned out", please call ahead to confirm the art is actually on display!

3/7/2013 Gettysburg/Civil War maps

I must apologize - in my last post, I feel that I was rather casual about the set of Gettysburg/Civil War maps. Produced in 1876, they are wonderful maps that tell the story of the three days of the Battle of Gettysburg, July 1-3, 1863 (one map for each day):






As explained on the visit-gettysburg web site,the Union positions are in blue and the Confederate positions are in red.

Before they went out of business, Borders sold a great (BIG!) $19.99 book called Maps of War amazon link. I bought a copy for myself, then I bought another copy to cut up and frame the maps!

These maps are also available from the Library of Congress web site

I believe these maps were originally published as part of ATLAS TO ACCOMPANY THE OFFICIAL RECORDS OF THE UNION AND CONFEDERATE ARMIES. In 1999, the original was offered at $1,200, and reprints/reproductions were available for $150/$200.

1/2/2013 more Maps (on Google Maps)

As a follow-up to my last blog, I want to see how some of my favorite areas/images/maps look on Google Maps. I first visited Stonehenge in July 1971, and was blessed to be able to take my wife Wendy there in June 2008. Coming from the east, you go over a rise and the Salisbury Plain is spread out before you, with Stonehenge in the middle of a fork-in-the-road (A303 is the main road going southwest, and A344 is the other road going northwest). In 1971 you could wander among the stones themselves, but the area had been restricted by 2008. In response to research stressing the importance of "the Avenue" to the northeast of Stonehenge, English Heritage (the organisation [love British spelling!] responsible for sites of antiquity) recommended the closing of a section of A344 because it "severs the alignment, to enable the stone circle to be reunited with the Avenue." I did a search on Images for "stonehenge site plan" and grabbed seven that look like fun.

The links are http://www.dennisdixon.net/Stonehenge/Stonehenge1.htm through .../Stonehenge7.htm:

Another series of maps that I love are those that were done by the Federal Government of the three days of battle at Gettysburg in the Civil War. The link to this map-on-Google-Maps is http://www.dennisdixon.net/Stonehenge/Gettysburg1.htm:

Have fun zooming-in, panning around, and turning the layer on-and-off.

12/31/2012 Essex County Greenbelt Maps (on Google Maps)

In 2012, my wife and I have enjoyed the natural beauty around us here on Cape Ann and the North Shore of Boston. There are several organizations that manage beautiful properties, ranging from nationally-known (The Trustees of Reservations, Massachusetts Audubon Society) to local land banks (Manchester-Essex Conservation Trust). One favorite of mine is the Essex County Greenbelt Association: ECGA owns and manages over 5,000 acres of land and many miles of trails throughout Essex County, and has a great series of pushpins-on-Google-Maps: http://www.ecga.org/explore_and_engage/properties

When you click on a pushpin, you get a nice little infowindow:

I'm looking for a map, so I click Read More, and get the Property Description page:

There is an excellent pdf map of the Property:

But I want to see the map in interactive Google Maps. My first step is to trim the pdf:

My second step is to geo-reference the image - I need to get the latitude and longitude coordinates of the northeast (upper-right) and southwest (lower-left) corners of the image. I like using MapInfo within which I can get the latitude/longitude numbers for my cursor location. I have my own Google account and my own id for displaying Google Maps on my website (it is free). They have excellent documentation, and I can integrate an Overlay into Google Maps:

the map's url: http://www.dennisdixon.net/maps_EssexCountyGreenbelt/stoney_coveoriginal.htm

I modified the code to be able to toggle the Trail map on-and-off:

the improved map's url: http://www.dennisdixon.net/maps_EssexCountyGreenbelt/stoney_cove.htm

6/15/2012 Fun with GPS! (part 2)

I recently went on a hiking trip up Mount Washington (well, not all the way to the top, but up to Lakes of the Clouds), and I took my Data Logger. This is the track from Lakes of the Clouds back down to the parking lot (in the @trip software):

It’s nice, but I’m looking for a little more WOW-factor. Let’s see if we can get this into Google Earth!
Well, it just so happens that there is a “View in Google Earth” button in the @trip software:

Click it, and the file is exported into Google Earth:

Let’s move around in Google Earth:


It is great swooping around, and you get a real sense of the mountain. I put together a tour.You can download my original kmz file, as well as the tour:
LakesOfTheClouds.kmz download file
LakesOfTheClouds_tour.kmz download tour

6/9/2012 Fun with GPS! (part 1)

My wife and I enjoy walking/hiking around our beautiful Cape Ann, as well as kayaking on the lakes, inlets, harbors, and even “ocean” (although we do stay very close to shore to see the rocks). I have always wanted to get some type of GPS (Global Positioning System) unit that would allow me to show, on a map, where we go. Additionally, I really like “dancing the dance” – accomplishing 6 or 7 errands to 6 or 7 different locations as quickly and efficiently as possible (a library or two, dump, paper recycling, Post Office, CVS, grocery store, etc), and I would love to see my tracks on a map when I’m done. Once upon a time I had an iPhone, and there was a great little app called Footsteps, but it used a lot of power from the iPhone, plus I traded it to my daughter last Christmas for her “not-smart” cell phone. Last week I read GPS for Dummies by Joel McNamara (2nd edition) – a very well-written book:
There are two ways to read this book: 1) starting at page one and going through to the end gives you great exposure to all aspects of GPS (to quote the Summary: An updated guide to the latest advances in GPS technology, devices, and applications provides step-by-step instructions on how GPS works, selecting and using GPS receivers, turning cell phones and PDAs into a GPS receiver, using digital maps, the game of geocaching, and other essential topics), or 2) figure out what you want to do and concentrate on that. i-gotU GT-120 Travel Blog Master (USB GPS, Data Logger, SiRF III Chipset) – used $40.
To give you an idea of the size, yes, that is a USB cable on the left! The gps unit fits in a circle you can make with your thumb and forefinger. To get up-and-running, load the mini-cd on your computer, and plug the unit into the USB cable, and plug the cable into your computer. This will charge the unit (couple of hours/overnight for first-time use). First trip! I went down to White Beach, stood outside the car and pressed the button. “On” will display a little blue light, “Off” will display a little red light. I then put the unit on my dashboard, ran my errands, and turned it off when I got home. Plug it into the cable, and start the @trip PC software. A little Welcome window appears, which I like seeing:
I click OK, and the software connects to their web site:
The software also detects the unit, and prompts you:
Click Yes, and the data is downloaded:
(One of the preferences I have is to clear the device after download)
The “Create Trip” window appears:
Click “Create a trip”, and click Next. You will be prompted to select a track (the one you just downloaded is selected by default)
then click Next. You can then select a template for your map:
click Next. You can then add a photo to your map, if you like:
click Next. After processing the track data
you get the Trip Completed window:
Click Finish. You get a “clearing status” message;
Then a Success message:
Click OK, and the map is drawn!

More tomorrow on getting your trip into Google Earth!

4/28/2012 Empire of the Summer Moon

For Christmas 2011 my brother-in-law gave me a copy of Empire of the Summer Moon by S.C. Gwynne. It tells the story of the Comanches in the 1800’s. Centered in the southern Great Plains, from Kansas to northern Mexico, they were the most violent of the American Indian tribes. All of the stories and vignettes in this book relate to thoughts, actions, and words of actual individuals – out of these various threads, the fabric of our nation today is woven. There is only one map in the book - a very nice one in the beginning, by Jeffrey L. Ward.

The best way to read this book is in front of a computer, with Google Maps, Google Earth, and a search engine up and running. Empire … is the story about a particular place and time in our Nation’s history, and the geography is an integral part of the story – visualization of that geography helps to complete the story.

Chapter Nineteen – The Red River War

Page 275 … But the best reason to camp in the panhandle was that, in all the southern plains, there was no better place to hide. In the general vicinity of present-day Amarillo, the dead-flat Llano Estacado gave way to the rocky buttes and muscular upheavals of the caprock, where the elevation fell as much as a thousand feet. Into this giant escarpment the four major forks of the Red River had cut deep, tortuous canyons, creating some of the most dramatic landscapes in the American West. The spectacular Palo Duro Canyon, carved out over the geological aeons by the Prairie Dog Town Fork of the Red River, was a thousand feet deep, one hundred twenty miles long, between a half-mile and twenty miles wide, and crossed by innumerable breaks, washes, arroyos, and side canyons. This was long the Quahadis’ sanctuary. …

… The final campaign took the form of five mounted columns designed to converge on the rivers and streams east of the caprock. Mackenzie commanded three of them: his own crack Fourth Cavalry was to march from Fort Concho (present-day San Angelo), and probe northward from his old supply camp on the Fresh Water Fork of the Brazos; Black Jack Davidson’s Tenth Cavalry would move due west from Fort Sill; and George Buell’s Eleventh Infantry would operate in a northwesterly direction between the two. From Fort Bascom in New Mexico, Major William Price would march east with the Eighth Cavalry, while Colonel Nelson A. Miles, a Mackenzie rival and a man destined to become one of the country’s most famous Indian fighters, came south with the Sixth Cavalry and Fifth Infantry from Fort Dodge, Kansas.

I have two monitors, and I like working with the additional real estate (as opposed to an iPad or Kindle). I don’t think that I want to see a movie – but these additional interactive visualization tools make “reading” a richer experience.