• Chapter 1:

I use the Neatline platform to explain why and how Scandinavian immigrates moved from their home countries to the States, and also, why and how Minnesota and Little Chicago. The map is a bird’s eye view of the immigration route, and viewers can click on the routes or timeline to see more details, including the accompanying texts and pictures which show their reasons to come to the States.

However, I failed to obtain more specific information on why Little Chicago exactly. Due to lack of information, this is more of an academic research about the broader patterns in Swedish immigration history. Also, I am not so content with the iframe display of Neatline Maps as WordPress Blog Posts. The map is shrunken, and viewers have to click on Fullscreen option for the original display of the whole map.

• Chapter 2:

I re-construct the narrative the Jesse-James robbery from the story of the Swedish immigrant, Nicolaus Gustafson, using a Esri “MyStoryMap” Map Journal platform, accompanied by an interactive map created through GIS. The map includes this hidden narrative since Gustafson’s first arrival in the area, to his interactions with other residents, especially on the night of September 6, eventually to the Bank Raid. The space is located in both Millersburg and Northfield, and one specific place, the Christdala Church is emphasized. Multimedia is also employed here, since I embed a decently made documentary of the Bank Raid with details.

I am not satisfied with my ability to use GIS. The ponit layer, line layer and polygon layer functions are very confusing, and after I add time feature onto the layers, they will not show up nicely in the Map Journal. I eventually gave up the timeline function and the attempt to create a first-person narrative since it is very difficult to deal with angles/perspectives in GIS. CityEngine was a choice for me, but I decided not to because of technological complexities associated with it. Therefore, the Story Map is somewhat generic with only lines and polygons.

• Chapter 3:

My oral history interview was, in my opinion, successful. My encounter with this particular lady working at Trondhjem Church was by coincidence, since I mistook Trondhjem Church as included in the Little Chicago quadrangle. However, she was kind enough to be willing to chat with me and called her sister to provide more information for me. The whole process was very smooth, and she answered most of my questions. In addition, the booklet she gave me was a precious primary source for my chapter 3. In general, the information I gained from her, her sister and the booklet they gave me is not as messy as I have expected for a normal oral history interview, and I am very grateful to that.

I make a map using Neatline, which shows changes according to the timeline. The timeline starts from Mr. Johnson’s childhood years to the post-WWII life in Little Chicago. For each individual point in time, the map includes the locations of the places where they often interacted with: their house, their farms, the schools, local stores, the Union Lake, etc. When people click on the locations (points, lines or polygons) or time periods on the map, there will be detailed texts and images about the memory of this location, including the story of the family and some representative objects of the time (tractors, washing machines, ration stamps).

The difficulties being the display of Neatline in WordPress. Also, I wish I could have re-created the story in a more first-person way and reflected the emotions of my interviewees, but I did not do in this way, since I am only familiar with creating lines and polygons in Neatline (as well as other platforms). The map together with the texts and images is still too informational than reflective, and I still have a long way to go in order to achieve what has been achieved in Heat-moon’s book.

General Reflections

I was worried about my project at the beginning of the term, since when I searched online about this quadrangle for the first time, not so many “historical” information really came up to me. However, Heat-Moon’s book became an inspiration for me to rethink, what “historically worthy” research really is. Any interaction between human beings and the land, the farms, the animals, the trees or the other residents upon the space is indeed worthy of research, as those micro-level and sometimes messy details can reflect a broader historical pattern, a greater context, a trend of historical activities. And these interactions can transcend time and space; they can even happen between the researchers and the researched, just like my journey of conducting oral history with local residents. I think, through this class, I have a deeper understanding of what history is: it is not only about archives and sources that are written and organized, but also about those casual interactions in life that everyone has experienced before.