Developing a Deep Map in a Historically Dense Landscape: The Spatial History of Charleston, South Carolina

Douglas Rivet, College of Charleston
James Newhard, College of Charleston
Danielle Cox, Charleston Library Society
Jennifer Comer, Charleston Library Society
Laurel Fay, Preservation Society of Charleston
Grant Gilmore, College of Charleston
Madison Lee, Preservation Society of Charleston
Jennifer Randall, International African American Museum
Chloe Stuber, Gullah Geechee Heritage Preservation Project

Established in 1670, the city and region around Charleston, SC is a place of profound significance to the social, economic, and political history of the United States, especially African American history. This area’s history is recorded in the documents, structures, archaeological remains, and family histories of the region, curated by a variety of private, public, and civic organizations, institutions, governments, and agencies, though too often, the histories of African American communities have been absent from the record The partnerships are strong but lack a formal, centralized location to explore the abundant, interwoven data sources and encourage further partnerships between organizations, agencies, and the broader community. The Spatial History of Charleston (SHOC) is conceived as a deep history geospatial platform of the Charleston region. The broad goal is to create a historical spatial database infrastructure and deep map that encompasses the Charleston region from the colonial period to the mid-20th century (c. 1670 – 1950), with an explicit focus on African American descendant communities and their emergence and development from the late 19th to mid-20th century (1865 – 1950). This focus allowed the team to concentrate on the critical aspects of the project. Specifically, this includes establishing the means to integrate datasets under separate development by multiple partners and to create functionality for the platform via collaboration with community members and broader stakeholders that ultimately seeks to realign the historical narrative of Charleston. We present a status report on SHOC and outline our initial and current scope and goals, particular challenges encountered, and opportunities that we see for the future.

No extended abstract or paper available

 Presented in Session 119. NEH Community Deep Mapping Institute 2