A New Software Package for Exploratory Text Mining and Mapping in Historical GIS

Wright Kennedy, University of South Carolina

Digital tools are enhancing historical research methodologies by enabling novel approaches to textual and spatial analysis. This paper introduces an innovative text-mining and mapping software tool designed specifically for analyzing large historical corpora. The software bridges the divide between scholars proficient in coding and those benefiting from intuitive graphical interfaces, offering accessible yet robust exploratory analysis. Scholars can query over 307 million articles (46 billion words) from approximately 2.1 million newspaper issues (1860–1922) within a compact local dataset derived from the Chronicling America historical newspapers collection (Library of Congress). The software includes browser-based interactive maps and trend visualizations, enriching exploration of textual sources by geographic region and historical period. It facilitates exploratory data analysis through collocation and topic modeling, enabling nuanced examination across space and time. Initially tailored to Chronicling America, the software has been designed for easy adaptation to other textual corpora, with ongoing plans to extend its functionality. Current collaborations demonstrate the tool’s broader potential, including exploratory research on geographic and temporal variations in historical print representations of weather. By eventually comparing textual patterns with historical daily weather records, this research aims to differentiate cultural from empirical variations. The presentation will include a demonstration of the software’s core features, using Chicago’s Haymarket Affair (1886) as a practical example to illustrate its exploratory capabilities. By lowering barriers to geospatial text analysis, this software invites broader scholarly engagement with computational historical research.

No extended abstract or paper available

 Presented in Session 33. Advances in Conceptual & Methodological Frameworks for Spatial History