Historiarum

It feels much less than four months ago that we began working our way through the process of historical mapping. This certainly was a demanding class, but I feel that the payoff was well worth it. In the end I was able to incorporate not just a lot about what we learned theoretically about creating historical maps, but also most of the technical skills that we struggled to master become familiar with during the semester. Despite my initial difficulties with the heinous Pen Tool in Illustrator, I was able to use it to color 3 maps that contextualized the two stadiums in their respective neighborhoods. I also made good use of the SketchUp model discussed in the last post, and think it was very useful in making comparisons with the professionally produced model of RFK Stadium. With the two models it was easy to demonstrate the differences in the way fans experienced the space both within and outside of the stadiums. I think the modest conclusions I came to (which you can read in the pdf files below) open up a number of avenues for further inquiry. For example, did the central and synthetic presence of early parks within their neighborhoods influence the social consciousness regarding baseball? Was baseball’s prominence related to this spatial prominence? Similarly, it would be fascinating to chart the growth of the piecemeal style ballpark with the growth of the buildings surrounding it and see what correlations there are and what conclusions that might lead to.

Below are pdf files of the final, ready-to-print, layout.

Page One
Page Two
Page Three

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I’m not sure I bit off more than I can chew in choosing to rebuild Griffith Stadium, but it’s certainly very close. SketchUp has proved to be one of those pieces of software you can really immerse yourself in; as in, “Wow! It’s 4am and I can’t feel my legs-I better go to bed!” Once I had the more rudimentary tasks down I became more and more frustrated by the limitations of the basic shapes. Especially since my building was filled with odd shapes and junctions. At times it became a fairly tedious process of trying to make point A line up with point B without affecting points C and D. For example the support beams I built to hold up the bleachers and roof proved extremely difficult to properly align, and I am certain that in the real world my building would topple over quickly.

However, any time you get to spend with your source material is time well spent, and working these photos and maps over in an effort to build the model really proved revealing. For example, I anticipated being able to get a feel for how it would have looked to sit in the seats at Griffith Stadium, and develop the sense of intimacy that old parks were known for. But I also came to understand that the sight lines one had beyond the stadium were also different than what we have grown accustomed to. Namely, it became possible to see the surrounding area, giving a sense that the park was part of the neighborhood. This makes sense when one thinks how these parks were generally built in more central locations rather than on the far edges of town.

Overall, despite the immense amounts of time SketchUp required to produce a viable model, I found it particularly rewarding. The results, along with some of the source images are below:

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My first few tries with Natural Scene Designer yielded some uninspiring results as the topographies came off a bit flat.

So I settled on one of the most awe-inspiring places I have ever seen in my life so far-Hurricane Pass in Grand Teton National Park. A friend and I had planned out a day hike which involved hitchhiking to a gondola which would do most of the climbing for us, and then walking twenty-five miles downhill. The plan fell apart when no one would pick us up, and quickly morphed into a literal marathon in which we climbed 13 miles more or less straight up before turning around and coming back before nightfall.

The funny part of the story is I was so beaten by mile 12.9 that with only a few hundred yards to go, I was ready to turn back before reaching the summit of Hurricane Pass. My friend Dennis was already back on his way down (we were going at our own paces by this point, despite a run-in with a bear who would also say hi on the return trip), and I asked him point blank if it was worth it. He chuckled, told me it was, and climbed back to the top with me.

As you can see from the dopey grins on our faces, the final ascent was . With Grand Teton, and three other peaks at our backs, we looked down into a gorgeous rolling green valley from which poured subliminally cool, energizing mountain air. The picture doesn’t really capture it, but you can get an idea. Suddenly the walk back to the car seemed less formidable.

So aside from a personal anecdote, where is the history? Well, this spot was a sacred place to local Native Americans. In fact it was considered the birthplace of the world. I’m convinced. Interestingly, I find the images from Natural Scene designer very evocative, moreso than many of the pictures I took there. You can capture a wider frame of reference more accurately. For kicks I threw in a view similar to the one in the picture. Not quite the same as being there, but a good surrogate for a grad student sitting in front of his computer most of the day.

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